Profile
George Caird acted as Interim Principal for Central from September 2020 to August 2021 during which time he led the process to develop the School’s Strategic Plan 2021-23.
George has combined a career as an oboist, teacher and researcher with fulfilling senior roles at the Royal Academy of Music, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Codarts Rotterdam and Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.
George joined the Royal Academy of Music as professor of oboe in 1984, became Head of Woodwind in 1987 and Head of Orchestral Studies in 1989. From 1993 to 2010 he was Principal of Royal Birmingham Conservatoire where he worked closely with the Birmingham School of Acting eventually contributing to the merging of the two organisations.
From 2011 - 2016, George was Artistic Director of the Classical Music Academy, Codarts, the university for the performing arts in Rotterdam. In July 2017, he was appointed interim Principal of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama a post that he held until July 2018. More recently, George has conducted a number of institutional reviews including one for the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland conducted with EDI specialist, Danielle Chavrimootoo. He has also been working with Mansfield College, Oxford on its music programme and is External Peer on the Academic Board of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
In addition, George has served on the boards of a number of key organisations: UK’s Music Education Council, Conservatoires UK, the Association of European Conservatoires as Secretary General, Youth Music, the Music and Dance Scheme for the DfE and Symphony Hall and Town Hall Birmingham. George is President of the Barbirolli International Oboe Competition, a Trustee of the Countess of Munster Musical Trust and a Trustee of the National Childrens’ Orchestra.
Following studies at Royal Academy of Music, the Nordwestdeutsche Musikakademie and Peterhouse, Cambridge, George began his career as an oboist working with many of London’s major orchestras including the London Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, City of London Sinfonia and The Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields from 1983 to 1993. A founder- member of The Albion Ensemble, and Caird Oboe Quartet, he has performed concerts and broadcasts in many countries across the world including China and the Far East, India, Egypt, Tunisia, the USA and Canada.
George is research active and has recently published articles on the oboe music of Benjamin Britten and on the Flute Fantasias of G.P. Telemann. In addition to many orchestral recordings, he has recorded CDs of solo and chamber music repertoire including An English Renaissance and Britten’s Six Metamorphoses after Ovid as part of his published study on that work. He has recorded Mozart’s Serenade Gran Partita among other releases with the Albion Ensemble and in 2009 recorded the Martinu Quartet with the Schubert Ensemble.