Lennox Berkeley
Sir Lennox Randal Francis Berkeley (
May 12,
1903 –
December 26,
1989) was a
British composer.
He was born in
Oxford, England, and educated at
Gresham's School and
Merton College, Oxford. In
1927, he went to Paris to study music with
Nadia Boulanger, and there he became acquainted with
Francis Poulenc,
Igor Stravinsky,
Darius Milhaud,
Arthur Honegger and
Albert Roussel. The French influence would continue to be felt in his music. He worked for the
BBC during the
Second World War, and later became president of the
Performing Rights Society. He was knighted in
1974. He held the chair of Professor of Composition at the
Royal Academy of Music from 1946 to 1968, and his pupils there included
Richard Rodney Bennett,
David Bedford and
John Tavener. He enjoyed a long association with
Benjamin Britten, another old boy of
Gresham's School, with whom he collaborated on a number of works. In later years, his adoption of serialism marked a darker and more brooding style.
His son,
Michael Berkeley, is also a composer.
Career highlights
* 1926 - began lessons with
Nadia Boulanger.
* 1936 - met Britten at
ISCM Festival in
Barcelona.
* 1946 - appointed Professor of Composition at London's
Royal Academy of Music.
* 1954 - premiere of his first opera
Nelson at Sadler's Wells.
* 1974 - knighted for Services to Music.
* 1977-83 - President of
Cheltenham Festival.
*
Serenade for Strings (1939)
*
Divertimento (1943; orchestra)
*
Four Poems of St Teresa of Avila (1947; contralto, strings)
*
Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano (1953)
*
A Dinner Engagement (1954; opera)
*
Missa Brevis (1960; choir, organ)
*
A Dinner Engagement - Chandos CHAN10219
*
Missa Brevis - Naxos 8.557277
*
Serenade for Strings - Chandos CHAN 9981
*
Lennox Berkeley's homepage at Chester Music*
The Lennox Berkeley Society
