The Wellspring: Conversations with David Norris

Barney Norris was born in Chichester in 1987 and grew up in Sussex, London and Salisbury. A graduate of the universities of Oxford and Royal Holloway, his plays are At First Sight and Missing and his poetry, stories and other writings have been published in various magazines. He is the co-artistic director of the theatre company Up In Arms (www.upinarms.org.uk), works as Max Stafford-Clark's assistant at Out of Joint, and has previously worked and trained under Bernard O'Donoghue, Andrew Motion, Jo Shapcott, Thelma Holt, Peter Gill and David Hare, and at Salisbury Playhouse, Oxford Playhouse, the Royal Court and the Bush. He is the author of two acclaimed novels: Five Rivers Met on a Wooded Plain (2016) and Turning for Home (2018).

David Owen Norris is a composer, pianist, broadcaster, lecturer and columnist. He is Professor of Musical Performance at Southampton University, and Visiting Professor at the Royal College of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, the Royal Academy of Music, and the Society of Antiquaries of London, and an Honorary Fellow of Keble College, Oxford. He has been harpist at the RSC, Artistic Director of the Cardiff International Festival, and is Gresham Professor of Music and Chair of the Steans Institute for Singers in Chicago, among other appointments. He wrote the book and analyses for the Beethoven 9 app (winner of the Best Music App Award in 2014) and has a monthly column in BBC Music. He has broadcast on Radio 4 since the 1980s, and contributes interval items at the Proms for Radio 3.