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Julian Grant (born 3 October 1960) is an English-born classical composer best known for a series of operas. He is also known for chamber music works and his challenging children's music. He is active as composer, journalist, broadcaster and music educator.
Julian Grant was born in London, England, and educated at Chichester High School for Boys and Bristol University. In 1985 he won a British Arts Council scholarship to attend the Music Theatre Studio Ensemble at Banff, Alberta, Canada. He returned to England in 1987 and freelanced for, among others, Northern Ballet Theatre, working closely with Christopher Gable on new performing versions of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet , and Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake , Chester Music, Novello's (a reduction of Thea Musgrave's Harriet Tubman, a Woman called Moses) and extensive education work with the London opera houses, notably English National Opera's Russian Tour in 1990.
In 1996 he moved with his partner Peter Lighte to Hong Kong, where they adopted two daughters. Grant held posts at Hong Kong University, guest conducted for the Academy of Performing Arts and hosted a weekday classical radio show. He lived in Japan from 2000 to 2002.
On return to London he became music director of St Paul's Girls' School, [1] (2002–07) a post previously held by Gustav Holst, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Herbert Howells. During his tenure there he wrote pieces for the school, including a multi-media celebration of the school's centenary in 2004. He worked for the Birmingham and Scottish Operas (reductions of Beethoven's Fidelio and Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin ), and wrote articles for the musical press, notably on opera and Russian music. From 2007 to 2010 he divided his time between Beijing and London, and was composer-in-residence at St. Ann's School, Brooklyn, from 2010 to 2012. In July 2012 his opera-ballet Hot House, a commission for London's Cultural Olympiad, premiered at the Royal Opera House, London. Since 2010 he lives in Princeton, NJ and New York.
His new chamber opera, with librettist Mark Campbell "The Nefarious, Immoral but Highly Profitable Enterprise of Mr. Burke & Mr. Hare" premiered at Boston Lyric Opera on 9 November 2017.
While at Banff, Grant produced several small-scale operas that culminated in The Skin Drum, which won the 1988 National Opera Association of America's biennial chamber opera competition, resulting in a semi-staged performance to launch the English National Opera's Contemporary Opera Studio in 1990. [2] This led to a collaboration with Marina Warner, The Queen of Sheba's Legs (ENO Baylis) and to Out of Season (Royal Opera House Garden Venture, 1991 - nominated for an Olivier Award). Further works for the opera stage include A Family Affair, a version of an Alexander Ostrovsky play by Nick Dear (Almeida Theatre, 1993), Jump Into My Sack with Meredith Oakes (Mecklenbergh Opera 1996), Heroes Don’t Dance (Royal Opera), [3] Platform 10 and Odd Numbers (Tête-à-Tête Opera), A Very Private Beach (English National Opera Knack 2004) and Shadowtracks (W11 opera, 2007) [4] with regular collaborator Christina Jones. Odysseus Unwound (2006 ), also with Tête-à-Tête, involved traditional knitters, spinners and weavers from Fair Isle and Shetland, the conception of which was featured on BBC television's Culture Show.
He has also written chamber music, instrumental music, orchestral and vocal works, some of which feature his interest and knowledge of Asian music and culture.
Michael Laurence Nyman, CBE is an English composer, pianist, librettist, musicologist, and filmmaker. He is known for numerous film scores, and his multi-platinum soundtrack album to Jane Campion's The Piano. He has written a number of operas, including The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat; Letters, Riddles and Writs; Noises, Sounds & Sweet Airs; Facing Goya; Man and Boy: Dada; Love Counts; and Sparkie: Cage and Beyond. He has written six concerti, five string quartets, and many other chamber works, many for his Michael Nyman Band. He is also a performing pianist. Nyman prefers to write opera over other forms of music.
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1951.
Dame Elizabeth Violet Maconchy LeFanu was an Irish-English composer. She is considered to be one of the finest composers Great Britain and Ireland have produced.
Grażyna Bacewicz Biernacka was a Polish composer and violinist of Lithuanian origin. She is the second Polish female composer to have achieved national and international recognition, the first being Maria Szymanowska in the early 19th century.
William Alwyn, was an English composer, conductor, and music teacher.
Boris Blacher was a German composer and librettist.
Julian Anderson is a British composer and teacher of composition.
Joseph Horovitz was an Austrian-born British composer and conductor best known for his 1970 pop cantata Captain Noah and his Floating Zoo, which achieved widespread popularity in schools. Horovitz also composed music for television, including the theme music for the Thames Television series Rumpole of the Bailey, and was a prolific composer of ballet, orchestral, brass band, wind band and chamber music. He considered his fifth string quartet (1969) to be his best work.
Philip Cashian is an English composer. He is the head of composition at the Royal Academy of Music.
Ilja Hurník was a Czech composer and essayist.
Tolib-khon Shakhidi or Tolib Shahidi is a Tajik and Soviet composer who was born in the city of Dushanbe, Tajik SSR. He is a son of the founder of Professional Tajik Academic Music – Ziyodullo Shakhidi.
Zbyněk Vostřák was a prominent Czech composer of New Music.
David Bruce is a British composer and YouTuber.
Thomas Pasatieri is an American opera composer.
Cheryl Ann Frances-Hoad is a British composer.
Raymond Henry Charles Warren is a British composer and university teacher.
Michel van der Aa is a Dutch composer of contemporary classical music.
Michael Lazarevich "Misha" Geller was a Russian viola player and composer.
Julian Philips is a British composer. Philips' works have been performed at major music festivals, including The Proms, Tanglewood, Three Choirs Festival, at the Wigmore Hall, South Bank Centre and Berlin Philharmonic Chamber Music Hall and by international artists such as Gerald Finley, Dawn Upshaw, Sir Thomas Allen, the Vertavo String Quartet, the Tanglewood Festival Orchestra, the BBC orchestras and the Aurora Orchestra.
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