Biography
Thornton began learning the euphonium at the age of eight and was soon after accepted as the first ever euphonium student at Chetham's School of Music in Manchester, England. During this time he held the principal euphonium position of the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain. David went on to the Royal Northern College of Music, where he studied with Steven Mead, graduating in 2000. In July 2000 he was appointed as principal euphonium of the Black Dyke Band.
He left the Band at the end of 2010.
Thornton has earned several awards including scholarships from the Countess of Munster Trust and the Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe, the National Euphonium Conference Solo Prize 1995, 1997 and 1999, first prize at the Verso Il Millenio International Euphonium Competition, and the International Euphonium Player of the Year 2001.
He has been featured on BBC Television, BBC Radio and Classic FM. David has performed as a guest player with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Birmingham's Royal Ballet, and Remix-Ensemble (Portugal's premier contemporary group).
Thornton teaches at the Royal Northern College of Music, the University of Huddersfield, the University of Leeds, the University of Manchester and Chetham's School of Music. He became Associate Conductor of the Longridge band, based near Preston, Lancashire, in 2003.
Read more about this topic: David Thornton (musician)
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“A great biography should, like the close of a great drama, leave behind it a feeling of serenity. We collect into a small bunch the flowers, the few flowers, which brought sweetness into a life, and present it as an offering to an accomplished destiny. It is the dying refrain of a completed song, the final verse of a finished poem.”
—André Maurois (1885–1967)
“As we approached the log house,... the projecting ends of the logs lapping over each other irregularly several feet at the corners gave it a very rich and picturesque look, far removed from the meanness of weather-boards. It was a very spacious, low building, about eighty feet long, with many large apartments ... a style of architecture not described by Vitruvius, I suspect, though possibly hinted at in the biography of Orpheus.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Had Dr. Johnson written his own life, in conformity with the opinion which he has given, that every man’s life may be best written by himself; had he employed in the preservation of his own history, that clearness of narration and elegance of language in which he has embalmed so many eminent persons, the world would probably have had the most perfect example of biography that was ever exhibited.”
—James Boswell (1740–95)