Christopher Nupen

Christopher Nupen began his broadcasting career in the Features Department of BBC Radio when he made HIGH FESTIVAL IN SIENA in 1962 for the BBC Third Programme at the invitation of Laurence Gilliam, a radio documentary of a new kind about the extraordinary summer music school of the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, where Nupen studied with Andrés Segovia and Alirio Diaz.

As a result of his radio programmes, he was invited by Huw Wheldon to move to television where he became the originator of a new kind of intimate classical music film - made possible for the first time by the invention of the first silent 16mm film cameras in the 1960s. His first film (DOUBLE CONCERTO) made in 1966, at the invitation of Huw Wheldon and David Attenborough with Vladimir Ashkenazy and Daniel Barenboim won two international prizes (Prague and Monte Carlo) and became a seminal work.

Nupen has been described by Sir Jeremy Isaacs and Sir Denis Forman as the undoubted master of the genre he pioneered and one whose work is an enduring source of musical delight.

- Much of his work has been built on intimate friendships with leading musicians, among them Jacqueline du Pré, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Daniel Barenboim, Pinchas Zukerman, Itzhak Perlman, Zubin Mehta, Nathan Milstein, Andrés Segovia, Isaac Stern and Evgeny Kissin.

- Maker of THE TROUT, probably the most frequently broadcast classical music film ever made.

- Probably the first truly independent television producer in the UK and still going strong. He has made more than 80 television productions, all shown on major networks both in the UK and in Germany.

- In some ways, his later work is more adventurous than ever. His two latest films, both of a kind which he had never made before have, between them, won five international prizes.

- Worked with the same lighting cameraman, David Findlay and film editor, Peter Heelas from his first film until now.

- Given the longest retrospective that has ever been shown on British television, sixteen consecutive Saturday evenings on Channel 4 at 9.05 p.m. from the beginning of September until Christmas - described by Channel 4 as their biggest success of the year, overall.

- Maker of the top-selling classical DVD title of 2004, JACQUELINE DU PRÉ IN PORTRAIT.

- Winner of DVD of the Year Award in Cannes two years in succession (2005 and 2006) with his second oldest film, JACQUELINE DU PRÉ IN PORTRAIT, and his second newest one WE WANT THE LIGHT.

- Through his work, Christopher Nupen has demonstrated convincingly that film and television are able to remember the artistic persona as nothing else can do and his films rank among the most enduring work that has yet been done for television. The Oxford philosopher and historian of ideas, Sir Isaiah Berlin, described some of them as being "At just about the highest level which television is capable of reaching".

Allegro Films

Allegro™ Films was formed in 1968, possibly the first truly independent television production company in the United Kingdom and one which has remained in the world-wide forefront of television music programming ever since. The founding members were Christopher Nupen (Producer/Director/Writer), David Findlay (Lighting Cameraman), Peter Heelas (Film Editor), Diana Baikie (Manager) and Michael Rosenberg (Production Assistant). Diana Baikie, Christopher Nupen's first wife, died in 1979, an immeasurable loss for us and for the world and Michael Rosenberg left to become head of Partridge Films, but the three founding members are still together today.