Eugene Patrick John McCarthy, choral director, born November 20, 1916 - April 8, 2009 provided the choral contingent for more than 150 opera recordings and numerous other high-profile projects. As the musical director of the Ambrosian Singers, which he co-founded in the early 1950s, McCarthy built up a contact list of some 700 professional singers who, in various groupings and names, provided the vocal ensembles for concerts, operas, musicals, films and television and recordings, making him one of the most powerful people in the business.
Born in London of Irish parents, he was christened Eugene Patrick John McCarthy, but the first two names were promptly abandoned and for most of his professional life he was known as John Mac or simply Mac. After attending the Oratory school in Kensington, where the director of music was the editor of Renaissance polyphony Henry Washington, he won a place at the Catholic school St Edmund's, Ware, Hertfordshire. Deciding not to go to university, he entered employment at Williams Deacon's Bank in London, where he eventually had responsibility for the overseas division. In 1940 he married Margaret Quigley.
After the second world war, the early music revival was getting under way in earnest in Britain. Together with one of the revival's most significant figures, the string player and musicologist Denis Stevens, McCarthy founded in 1951 the Ambrosian Singers, a small, professional chorus initially dedicated to the music of the medieval and Renaissance eras, performed according to the principles of historically informed practice. Stevens was at that time a BBC radio producer, and the Ambrosians provided the musical illustrations for a series called The History of Western Music, a venture he supervised.
Stevens departed for America in 1955 to take up visiting professorships, and McCarthy took over sole responsibility for the Ambrosians. In 1956 he formed the Ambrosian Consort with a group of six solo singers. But the core ensemble also expanded. For operatic work it was called the Ambrosian Opera Chorus; for some other assignments it was known as the John McCarthy Singers. From 1961 to 1966 McCarthy was chorus master of the London Symphony Orchestra. During this time the LSO Chorus was simply the Ambrosian Singers under another name. McCarthy's singers provided the chorus for major operatic projects under such conductors as Giulini, Abbado and Bonynge. They also contributed to many film soundtracks including the Oscar winners Chariots of Fire and Amadeus, on pop and rock albums and to numerous Christmas recordings.
Although possessed of a decent tenor voice himself (he recorded as a boy soprano in 1927), it was as the founder and co-ordinator of the Ambrosians that McCarthy made his reputation. Recruiting from the Glyndebourne chorus and the various conservatoires, his earlier ensembles included Janet Baker, Heather Harper, Robert Tear and Ian Partridge. Most singers recruited for the Ambrosian ensembles needed no coaching, but McCarthy brought an excellent ear and meticulous organisation to the rehearsal room. He knew all the voices individually. "You couldn't get away with anything," one singer remembered. Despite the influence he wielded, he was a modest man who declined to take curtain calls and often went uncredited.
During his career, he also served for a time as chorus master at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and – over a period of 40 years – was director of music at the Carmelite Priory in London. To the latter job he brought a specialist knowledge of Gregorian, Ambrosian, Mozarabic and Byzantine chant, as well as a good deal of Tudor and Renaissance music, some of which he edited for publication. He was appointed OBE for services to music in 1989.
McCarthy also had a keen interest in sport. At school he had been a champion swimmer and as an adult he won trophies for swimming and water polo, and was a reserve for the water polo team at the 1948 Olympic games.
Margaret died in 1997. He is survived by their twin daughters and son.
Retrieved from
Author Barry Millington
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jul/16/obituary-john-McCarthy
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