Michael Berkeley Composer composed for Heather Harper and performed at For ten years from 1995 Michael was Artistic the 1988 Proms; the Concerto for Director of the Cheltenham International Music Organ; Keening for the saxophonist John Festival, where he premiered over a hundred new Harle; Fierce Tears I and Fierce Tears II for the works and initiated a policy of having a oboist Nicholas Daniel; the Quartet Study and contemporary work in every programme. He built two pieces for strings, the music programme for the Sydney Festival for Coronach and Gethsemane fragment. three years at the beginning of the millennium and, with Judith Weir and Anthony Payne, jointly The 1990s began with the powerful and directed the Spitalfields Festival in the previous expressionist Concerto for Clarinet at decade. He was the featured composer for the Huddersfield Festival while his first the New York Philharmusica. He currently opera, Baa Baa Black Sheep, based on the presents Radio 3's Private Passions, which won childhood of Rudyard Kipling, was premiered at the Broadcasting Press Guild's Radio Programme the Cheltenham Festival to enormous public and of the Year Award in 1996, and for nine years was critical acclaim in 1993. It was subsequently Chairman of the Governors of broadcast by BBC Radio and Television The Royal Ballet until 2012. and recorded on CD for Chandos. The London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Colin Davis Since 2010, Berkeley’s compositions have premièred and toured Secret Garden, and then in included an Oboe Quintet, Into the Ravine for August 1998, The Garden of Earthly Delights, a Nicholas Daniel and the Carducci String Quartet BBC Proms commission, was premièred by and Three Rilke Sonnets for Claire Booth and the the National Youth Orchestra of Great Nash Ensemble, who gave a second performance Britain under Mstislav Rostropovich. at the Wigmore Hall. As part of Berkeley's tenure as Composer in Recent commissions have included a new anthem Association to the BBC National Orchestra of for the enthronement of the new Archbishop of Wales he was commissioned to write three new Canterbury (Listen, Listen, O my Child), Cabaret works. The second, the Concerto for Orchestra, Songs for Barbara Hannigan and Angela Hewitt, a “Berkeley’s brightly-coloured work was premièred at the 2005 Proms. This piece, as Motet (Super Flumina Babylonis) commissioned sounded like a new-minted classic ” with most of Berkeley’s significant orchestral by the RVW Trust for the Festival of St Cecilia at work, much of his chamber music and his operas, Westminster Cathedral, and the new Carol for the The Independent is available on CD as part of the Chandos Berkeley 2016 Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King’s Edition. His final commission for the National College Cambridge which was broadcast Michael Berkeley was born in 1948, the eldest Orchestra of Wales was for chorus and orchestra, worldwide on Christmas Eve. He also wrote two son of the composer Sir Lennox Berkeley and a a haunting lament written in memory of a young major orchestral scores, a Violin Concerto godson of Benjamin Britten. family friend, Gabriel Bailey, and Berkeley's long- premiered by Chloe Hanslip at the BBC Proms in time friend and collaborator, Richard Hickox. 2016 and Two Farewells for cello and orchestra He studied composition, singing, and piano at for the VIVACELLO Festival in Moscow in 2017. the Royal Academy of Music, but it was not until Berkeley’s second opera, Jane Eyre, written to For his 70th birthday in 2018, he was his late twenties, when he went to study with David Malouf's libretto, has been produced in the commissioned by Wigmore Hall for a celebration Richard Rodney Bennett, that Berkeley began to UK, Australia and America. His third opera, For concert by the Britten Sinfonia and writes a new concentrate exclusively on composing. In 1977 he You, was written to a libretto by Ian McEwan and Mass for Wells Cathedral. was awarded the Guinness Prize for Composition; commissioned by Music Theatre Wales. It two years later he was appointed Associate was released on the Signum label. Michael was appointed a CBE for services to Composer to the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. music in the Queen's Birthday Honours published Since then Berkeley’s music has been played all Michael Berkeley has written incidental music on June 16th 2012. In 2013 he was also appointed over the globe and by some of the world's finest for radio and three film scores: Captive (1986), a non-party political member of the House of musicians. starring Oliver Reed and Irina Brook, directed by Lords. Paul Mayersberg for which he collaborated with Major works of the 1980s include Gregorian The Edge of U2; Goldeneye (1991) - a dramatised Variations conducted in England and America Valid for use until 1 September 2021 life of Ian Fleming starring Charles Dance and by André Previn; the 1982 oratorio Or Shall We For updated versions please contact directed by Don Boyd, and another Don Boyd Die? to a text specially written by Ian McEwan, [email protected] film, Twenty One (1991) starring Patsy Kensit and and made into a film by Richard Eyre; For the Rufus Sewell. Savage Messiah, Songs of Awakening Love, Rayfield Allied Member of the International Artist 9-12 The Stableyard, Managers’ Association Broomgrove Road, London SS9 9TL, UK Rayfield Allied acts as agent only and can www.rayfieldallied.com accept no responsibility as principal E-mail [email protected] Telephone +44 (0) 20 3176 5500 Facsimile +44 (0) 700 602 4143 .