Philip Sawyers

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Philip Sawyers (born 20 June 1951) is a British composer of orchestral and chamber music, including six symphonies.

Contents

Sawyers was born in London. He began composing as a teenager, studying at Dartington College of Arts in Devon with Colin Sauer (violin) and Helen Glatz (composition), and then at the Guildhall School of Music where his teachers were Joan Spencer and Max Rostal (violin), and Buxton Orr, Patric Standford and Edmund Rubbra (composition). [1]

From 1973 Sawyers worked as an orchestral violinist with the Royal Opera House Orchestra, Covent Garden. He was a violin coach for the Kent County Youth Orchestra, and a visiting teacher at schools and colleges. In 1997 he spent a year in postgraduate study at Goldsmiths College. From 2000-2013 he was an examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. [1]

Music

Sawyers has mostly composed in traditional forms with few programmatic overtones. [2] His first works date from his time as a student in the late 1960s and early 1970s. One of those pieces, the Symphonic Music for Strings and Brass (1972), was taken up and performed by the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra in the USA, and in 2011 was recorded alongside his Symphony No 1 (2004). [3] Since then many of his more recent orchestral works have been recorded. [4] There are six symphonies (spanning 2004-2022), multiple concertos, an hour-long oratorio Mayflower on the Sea of Time (2018, libretto by Philip Groom) [5] as well as chamber music and songs.

Orchestral

Concertante

Chamber

Instrumental

Vocal and choral

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References

  1. 1 2 "Philip Sawyers – Composer – Composer". Philipsawyers.co.uk. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  2. ↑ "SAWYERS Symphony 1 - Nimbus NI6129 [JF] Classical Music Reviews: August 2014". Musicweb-international.com. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  3. ↑ "Grand Rapids Symphony Bio 580 words". Kathrynkingmedia.com. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  4. ↑ "Products". Chandos.net. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  5. ↑ Premiered on 17 June 2023 at Worcester Cathedral
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