Adam Pounds (born 25 November, 1954) is a British composer and conductor, mostly active in Cambridge.
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Adam Pounds (born 25 November, 1954) is a British composer and conductor, mostly active in Cambridge.
Pounds studied oboe, guitar, composition and conducting at the London College of Music, and then took private composition lessons from Lennox Berkeley, to whom he had sent his early oboe quartet by way of introduction. [1] He continued his studies at Goldsmiths's College and Trinity Hall, Cambridge. [2]
Pounds founded and conducted the Nelson Orchestra, Waltham Forest, in 1981. [3] [4] He subsequently founded the Academy of Great St. Mary's at the University Church in Cambridge, [5] where some of his later works have received their debut. [6] Pounds also conducts the Stapleford Choral Society. [7]
Between 2015 and 2021, Pounds also served as the chairman of the Lennox Berkeley Society, [8] which encourages the performance, study, recording and broadcast of his former tutor's work. [9]
Pounds' early orchestral compositions include the Sinfonietta (1979) and the Gaelic Triptych (1983). His Festival Overture (1987) was commissioned by the Waltham Forest Arts Festival. [10] The Violin Concerto was first performed at the Stansted Festival in 1995. [11] Chamber works include three string quartets: No. 1 (1978); the one movement Second String Quartet (2003); [12] and the String Quartet No. 3, completed in 2022. There are also vocal works, such as the Shakespeare Sonnets for voice, flute and piano, the London Cantata, [10] and an opera, Syn, based on Russell Thorndike's Dr Syn character. The opera has been performed at the Mumford Theatre, Cambridge.
The Martyrdom of Latimer was commissioned in 2009 to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Ely Sinfonia. It explores the final days of the life of the cleric Hugh Latimer, his death at the stake and his martyrdom, using modal themes and liturgical ideas combined with strong rhythmic statements. It is written for a fairly large orchestra, employing four trumpet parts, with two of the players intended to be sited in a gallery. The piece was premiered in Ely Cathedral on 3rd October 2009. [13]
The London Cantata, completed in 2017, returns to Pounds' city of birth, reflecting on the historical diversity of life in the capital, set to the words of Wilfred Owen, Amy Levy, George Eliot and William Wordsworth, among others. [10]
In 2018 Pounds continued composing a series of numbered symphonies, with Symphony No. 3 (2021) recorded in November 2022 by John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London, to whom it is dedicated. [14] Written in response to the COVID-19 lockdowns imposed in 2020 and 2021, Pounds states that the piece captures the ‘sadness, humour, determination and defiance’ which everyone faced at this time – not least musicians. [15] The Symphony No 4 was premiered in Cambridge on 10 December 2023. [6]
Pounds' compositional style is in the symphonic tradition, and although he has used some so-called modern methods including serialism and minimalism, he has followed a line through composers such as Shostakovich, Hindemith, Vaughan Williams and Bartók. He also gained much from his time studying with Lennox Berkeley, who advised him to 'write only the notes you need'; during this time Pounds was able to refine his form and find direction. [1]
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