Our Leadership

John Gibbons

Conductor / Music Director

John Gibbons is a multi-faceted musician: conductor, composer, arranger, pianist, and organist, who works across musical genres including opera, cathedral music and recording neglected British orchestral music.

In addition to his work as Music Director of WSO, John has conducted most of the major British orchestras including the BBCSO, LPO, CBSO, BBC Concert Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and, most regularly, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He has recorded orchestral works by Nikos Skalkottas with the Philharmonia Orchestra, the string concertos of Arthur Benjamin with the RSNO on the Dutton Epoch label, Mozart Piano Concertos with Idil Biret and the London Mozart Players, Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony (with a completion of the finale by Nors Josephson) with the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra on the Danacord label, and William Wordsworth’s Orchestral Works (vol. 1) on the Toccata label.

Renowned for his adventurous programming, John has given many world and UK premieres of both new pieces (most recently the Triple Concerto by Errollyn Wallen with Kosmos Ensemble and WSO in Chichester Cathedral) and neglected works including the Third Orchestral Setby Charles Ives, the Violin Concerto by Robert Still, and both the Second Piano Concerto and Violin Concerto by William Alwyn. His recent performance of George Lloyd’s Fourth Symphony with Ealing Symphony Orchestra drew an ecstatic review from Simon Heffer in The Telegraph.​

John recorded Laura Rossi's film score The Battle of Ancre (Pinewood Studios) and conducted the BBC Concert Orchestra in her score to The Battle of the Somme at the live screening in the Royal Festival Hall to commemorate the centenary of the ending of this battle.​

Overseas work includes Walton's First Symphony with the George Enescu Philharmonic as well as concerts with the Macedonian Philharmonic, the Çukurova Symphony (Turkey) the Portuguese Symphony Orchestra, and performances of Malcolm Arnold's Fourth Symphony in Latvia and Vaughan Williams's A Sea Symphony in Worms, Germany.

John Gibbons studied music at Queens’ College, Cambridge, the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music, winning numerous awards as conductor, pianist and accompanist. He assisted John Eliot Gardiner on the ‘Leonore’ project and the recording of music by Percy Grainger and was Leonard Slatkin's second conductor for a performance of Charles Ives's Fourth Symphony with the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam.

He has conducted numerous opera productions at Opera Holland Park with particular emphasis on Verdi, Puccini and the verismocomposers, including Mascagni's Irisand Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur. He conducted La Bohèmefor the Spier Fesitval in South Africa, toured Hansel & Gretel around Ireland with Opera Northern Ireland and Opera Theatre Company and conducted a number of productions for English Touring Opera. John's orchestral reductions include Walton's Troilus & Cressidafor Opera St Louis, Missouri and Karl Jenkins's Stabat Mater.

John, a renowned communicator with audiences, is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, vice chairman of the British Music Society, and choral director at Clifton Cathedral. His own music has been performed in various abbeys and cathedrals as well as at the Southbank, London.

Further information about John can be found here

Julian Leaper

Leader / Principal Violin​

In 1978 Julian won a Junior Exhibition Scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music where he studied violin with Emanuel Hurwitz and piano as joint first study with Hamish Milne.

He was awarded several prizes for solo performance and chamber music including the prestigious Gerard Heller award for which he won first prize for Quartet playing.

In 1982 he continued his studies with Alberto Lysy at the Yehudi Menuhin Academy Gstaad and Tomatada Soh and Kenneth Sillitoe in London. He made his London debut performing a programme of British music at the Purcell Room. He has since performed as leader and soloist with many British orchestras including the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Worthing Symphony Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia and the New London Orchestra. He has worked regularly with all the major chamber Orchestras and ensembles including the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, English Chamber Orchestra , Chamber Orchestra of Europe, London Mozart Players and the Orchestra of St Johns Smith Square.

He has worked with the London Philharmonic, Philharmonia and BBC Symphony orchestras.

His solo and concerto performances include the complete Brandenburg concertos at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Vivaldi’s Four Seasonsat the Purcell Room, Mozart D major violin concertoat St Johns Smith Square, Beethoven Triple concertoat Truro Cathedral, Vaughn Williams Lark Ascendingand Mozart Sinfonia Concertanteat Worthing Assembly Hall together with a number of other solo performances at venues across the UK. He has recorded a large number of sound tracks for Film and TV including Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, James Bondand has recorded the solo violin tracks for Ridley Scott’s Tristan and Isolde and TV blockbusters such as Upstairs Downstairs, Cranford, and Downton Abbey.

In 2014 Julian was appointed leader of the internationally acclaimed Maggini String Quartet.

He is passionate about introducing live music to children and has made many visits to schools across the UK with the Maggini Quartet together with visits to special needs schools with the Music for Autism Charity.

Julian is very interested in antique string instruments and has acquired a collection of beautiful violins over the years, his pride and joy, a 1735 Januarius Gagliano, on which he plays.

Find out more about Julian here

Sean Macdonald

Trustee​

Sean has been a Sussex resident all his life and grew up in Hove where he attended De La Salle College, which became Cardinal Newman school in the Upper Drive. He completed his A Levels at Northbrook College in Worthing and eventually moved to liven the town in the early 1980s.

After education, Sean worked in the Civil Service, but had always wanted to before successfully applying to join Sussex Police in the mid 1980s. He was initially posted to Littlehampton and then served in both uniform and plain clothes in various stations along the coast. He finished his career in Brighton working on the public order unit which allowed him to expand his second passion (after music) and attend Brighton & Hove Albion football matches throughout the country.

“I have seen Brighton beat John Gibbons’s team Wolves (and lose to them)!”

After 30 years’ service as a Policeman, Sean rejoined Sussex Police as support staff and also stood in the local Council elections in 2014. He was elected to represent Northbrook ward in Durrington and was also elected to West Sussex County Council in 2017 to represent the same ward. In 2016 he was honoured to be the Mayor of Worthing and one of the ‘chores’ was to attend WSO concerts as a guest. As Sean observes “This was easy for me as I had been a regular for many years”.

Following his year as Mayor, Sean was approached to become a WSO Trustee and was delighted to accept. Sean is also a Governor at Hawthorns School in Durrington, a member of The Sons Of The Desert – the Laurel and Hardy fan club – and he remains a passionate fan of Brighton and Hove Albion. However, his main interests remain classical music and ballet which he has enjoyed since his school days.

Sean has lived in Durrington for 35 years and I has two sons and three (soon to be four) grandchildren.