Charlotte's Christopher Warren-Green to conduct at royal wedding

Christopher Warren-Green to lead the music at the wedding of England's Prince William and Kate Middleton April 29

By Steven Brown
The Charltote Observer

Charlotte Symphony music director Christopher Warren-Green will conduct for the wedding of England's Prince William and Kate Middleton in April.

Warren-Green, a native of England, has conducted for a variety of royal occasions since 1980. His participation in William and Kate's wedding - April 29 at London's Westminster Abbey - was announced today by the royal news office.

Two choirs, an orchestra and a fanfare team will perform the music at the service. Warren-Green will conduct the London Chamber Orchestra. He is its music director and principal conductor. The orchestra's 39 musicians will be in the organ loft of the Abbey.

Warren-Green conducted for his first royal event - a 1980 concert in Buckingham Palace's Throne Room - at the invitation of Prince Charles. The prince had become familiar with Warren-Green through London's Philharmonia Orchestra.

At the time, Warren-Green served as the orchestra's first-chair violinist, and he was building a conducting career. Prince Charles, William's father, was the Philharmonia's patron - a role that members of the royal family take with an array of cultural and social-service organizations they want to promote.

Warren-Green has gone on to conduct at royal events including celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II's 80th birthday and Prince Charles' 60th birthday. In 2005, Warren-Green conducted for the prayer service following the wedding of Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall.

"When it was announced that he was going to marry the then-Camilla Parker Bowles, I was sitting in my kitchen, and the phone rang," Warren-Green recalled in a 2009 Observer interview. "It was the Prince of Wales on the phone himself - like anybody. If you were going to ring me and ask, 'Will you play at my wedding?' you wouldn't ask someone else to do that. You would do it yourself. That's the measure of the man - fantastic manners and courtesy.

"And he adores music. You can see him visibly moved by music."

Warren-Green has been the Charlotte Symphony's music director since September. His participation in the royal wedding will let the orchestra bask in a little reflected limelight.

The ceremony will be telecast worldwide, said Jonathan Martin, the orchestra's executive director. The audience is expected to number in the hundreds of millions.

Warren-Green's presence in the ceremony, Martin said, will be "another indication that, in Christopher, we have someone who ... operates on a global musical stage."