Hugo Rignold

English conductor and violinist

Hugo Henry Rignold (15 May 1905 – 30 May 1976) was an English conductor and violinist, who is best remembered as musical director of the Royal Ballet (1957–1960) and conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (1960–1968). After playing the violin and recording with many jazz and dance bands, and leading his own London Casino Orchestra, in the 1920s and 1930s, during World War II, Rignold began to conduct classical orchestras. Thereafter, he conducted opera at Covent Garden and then the Liverpool Philharmonic, beginning in the late 1940s, followed by the Royal Ballet and his long tenure with Birmingham.

Born in Kingston upon Thames, England, the son of conductor Hugo Charles Rignold and opera singer Agnes Mann, Rignold was taken to Canada when his parents emigrated to Winnipeg in 1910. He began studying the violin as a child with John Waterhouse in Winnipeg and played in the orchestra of the Winnipeg Theatre. After returning to England in 1921, he studied at the Royal Academy of Music and then worked as a blacksmith for a time.

In the 1920s and 1930s, Rignold played violin with many jazz and dance bands of the day, including those of Mantovani, Jack Hylton, Jack Harris, Fred Hartley, Ambrose, Lew Stone and Jay Wilbur. Rignold went on to lead his own London Casino Orchestra. 1920s recordings in which Rignold played with the Jack Hylton Orchestra include George Gershwin's "Oh, Lady Be Good" recorded on 29 March 1926, and Irving Berlin's "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" recorded on 17 August 1926. Both were for HMV at the company's studios in Hayes, Middlesex. Later, with Hylton as his mentor, he founded and led his own band, which was playing up to the beginning of the Second World War. Rignold married three times: in 1934 to Rita Mary Gaylor (the actress Molly Gay); in 1941 to Phyllis Stanley; and in 1948 to Patricia Horton. There was a daughter by each of the first two marriages. The elder was Jennifer Gay, who became the first on screen schoolgirl continuity announcer for Children's Hour on the BBC.

While serving in the Royal Air Force in 1944, Rignold got the chance to conduct the Palestine Orchestra, now the Israel Philharmonic, and thereafter his career remained within the classical sphere. From 1957 to 1960 Rignold was musical director of the Royal Ballet, In 1960 he became permanent conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra when Andrzej Panufnik unexpectedly resigned. He remained at Birmingham until 1968.