Neville Dilkes

Who is Neville Dilkes?

Neville Dilkes is an English conductor and organist.

He was born in Derby, England to a musical family. He became a Fellow of Trinity College of Music, London, and later did his National Service in the Royal Army Medical Corps. He taught at Repton, and then in 1955 was named Director of Music at Corby Grammar School, where he mounted a school production of Gluck's opera Orfeo ed Euridice. This brought together a number of musicians from the Midlands, who formed the Kettering Symphony Orchestra under Dilkes' leadership.

In 1961 he formed the Midland Sinfonia and also a chamber music performance group, Opera Da Camera. The Midland Sinfonia was administered from Dilkes' home for its first five years; it acquired a permanent office in Nottingham in 1966, and gave its first London concert in 1968. It was later renamed the English Sinfonia.

In 1963 he joined the Netherlands Radio Union International Conductors' Course, where his principal tutor was Dean Dixon. He was the inaugural winner of the Watney-Sargent Award, chosen by Sir Malcolm Sargent himself.

He is an associate conductor of the Philomusica of London. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists.