Anthony Gilbert

ANTHONY GILBERT, born in London in 1934, studied Composition with Mátyás Seiber, Anthony Milner and Alexander Goehr, and later with Gunther Schuller at Tanglewood.  He first attracted public attention in the 1960s with a series of virtuoso works for small ensembles, performed in the international festivals. Leaving London for the North of England in 1970, first as Granada Arts Fellow at Lancaster University and then to teach Composition at the Royal Northern College of Music, he devoted the next ten years to symphonies and operas. During the 1980s, largely as a result of periods in Australia, he focused once again on compositions featuring solo performers – many, including the extraordinary concerto Igorochki, being for the virtuoso recorder player John Turner. From this period also date Dream Carousels for wind, and the orchestral song-cycle Certain Lights Reflecting, both inspired by the work of the Australian poet Sarah Day. In the 1990s Gilbert again concentrated on virtuoso pieces, this time featuring percussion. The major work from the 1990s is his acclaimed Violin Concerto On Beholding a Rainbow, commissioned by the BBC and premiered in January 1999 by Anthony Marwood and the BBC Philharmonic, conducted by Rumon Gamba. Another recent orchestral work, the Dance Concerto, is dedicated in gratitude to Stephen Plaistow, former Head of BBC Contemporary Music. Two more string quartets, several song-cycles setting Spanish, French and Australian poetry, Triptych for the Northern Chamber Orchestra and, most recently a string quintet reflecting on the wonders of Chartres Cathedral, are products of the past decade.