STEPHEN DODGSON
was born in London in 1924, and lived there with few interruptions for most of his life. He received his musical training at the Royal College of Music, and was subsequently a member of its teaching staff in theory and composition for many years. In 1950 he was in Italy with a travelling scholarship. Through the next 15 years he was part time teacher/lecturer in a succession of schools and colleges.
From this period onwards, he was much employed by the BBC, as provider of incidental music for many major radio drama productions, as well as a frequent and familiar broadcaster of reviews and other musical topics
Closely associated with Philip Jones and his famous Brass Ensemble from its earliest days, Stephen contributed a number of original works and arrangements, nearly all of which featured in PJBE recordings. Stemming from this primary stimulus, many other works appeared for ensembles large and small, mostly for mixed wind and brass. For brass alone, he wrote four additional works for standard brass quintet, a Divertimento for 4 (trumpet, horn and tuba with piano) and Cor Leonis (solo horn). For woodwind alone there is Serenade (reed trio), Bagatelles (4 clarinets), Epigrams from a Garden (solo voice and clarinet choir).
His works for mixed wind and brass are particularly associated with the National Youth Wind Orchestra, which has taken up a number of works originally commissioned by others (e.g. Matelot, and The Eagle), and premiered Bandwagon, expressly written for it. On a smaller scale, he wrote an Octet and Partita for Ten Wind Instruments, as well as Orion (nonet for clarinets and brass). His Trumpet Concerto (with wind band) was written for James Watson. He also wrote a number of variously graded solo pieces for wind and piano for the Associated Board, and Masque, a commission by the London Oboe Band (baroque instruments), which has up to now totally resisted adaptation for modern instruments.
Compositions cover almost every genre, including opera (Margaret Catchpole, 1979); six piano sonatas; seven string quartets and much other chamber music. There is also a substantial body of music for orchestra, chorus and solo voices. He is however probably best known for his writing for guitar. His numerous works for guitar - solo, in ensemble, chamber music and concertos - brought him worldwide recognition.
He died on April 13th, 2013.
ADAM GORB
was born in 1958 and started composing at the age of ten. At fifteen he wrote a set of piano pieces - A Pianist's Alphabet -of which a selection were performed on BBC Radio 3. In 1977 he went to Cambridge University to study music, where his teachers included Hugh Wood and Robin Holloway. After graduating in 1980 he divided his time between composition and working as a musician in the theatre. In 1987 he started studying privately with Paul Patterson, and then, from 1991 at the Royal, Academy of Music where he gained a MMus degree and graduated with the highest honours, including the Principal's Prize in 1993.
Works include Metropolis for wind band, which has won several prizes including the Walter Beeler Memorial Prize in the USA in 1994 and is available on CD; Prelude, Interlude and Postlude for piano, which won the Purcell Composition Prize in 1995; Kol Simcha, a ballet given over fifty performances by the Rambert Dance Company; Awayday for Wind Band which has had several hundred performances since its premiere in 1996 and has been commercially recorded three times; a Violin Sonata premiered at the Spitalfields Festival in 1996; Reconciliation for Clarinet and Piano, commissioned for the Park Lane Young Artists New Year series in 1998 and Elements, a Percussion Concerto for Evelyn Glennie and the Royal Northern College of Music Wind Ensemble which was released on CD in 2001. Since 1999 premieres have included a Clarinet Concerto for Nicholas Cox and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Weimar for chamber ensemble, also in 2000 and Downtown Diversions, a trombone concerto, at the CBDNA conference in Texas in February 2001. Recent works include a string quartet for the Maggini Quartet that was premiered at Bromsgrove music club in February 2002; Straitjacket for tuba and piano for James Gourlay; Towards Nirvana, which received its first performance by the Tokyo Kosei Wind Ensemble in October 2002, and Diaspora for eleven strings which was given its premiere by the Goldberg Ensemble at their contemporary festival at the RNCM in February 2003.
Adam Gorb is Head of School of Composition and Contemporary Music at the Royal Northern College of Music. For more information see his website at: http://www.adamgorb.co.uk
EDWARD GREGSON
Edward Gregson, born in 1945, is one of Britain's most versatile composers, whose music has been performed, broadcast and recorded worldwide. He studied composition and piano at the Royal Academy of Music from 1963-7, winning five prizes for composition. He received early success with his Brass Quintet, which was broadcast and recorded by the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble and the Hallé Brass Consort. This was followed by many commissions from, amongst others, the English Chamber Orchestra and the York Festival. Since then he has written orchestral, chamber, instrumental and choral music, as well as music for the theatre, film and television. Most of his music has been broadcast and much of it is commercially recorded.
His major orchestral works include 'Music for Chamber Orchestra' (1968), 'Metamorphoses' (1979), 'Contrasts - a concerto for orchestra' (1983 rev 2001), and 'Blazon' (1992). In recent years he has completed commissions for the Royal Liverpool philharmonic, the Bournemouth Symphony and the BBC philharmonic (for whom he wrote his Clarinet Concerto in 1994 - premiered by Michael Collins). In the last two years he has completed a major choral/orchestral work entitled 'The Dance, forever the Dance' which was premiered in St Albans Cathedral, and a violin concerto (a commission from the Hallé orchestra) which received its premiere at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, with soloist Lyn Fletcher and the Hallé Orchestra conducted by Kent Nagano.
He has also written a wide range of chamber and orchestral music from his early Oboe Sonata of 1965, written when he was a student at the RAM, to his 'Six Little Pieces' for piano (1982) and his larger scale Piano Sonata in one movement of 1983. His concerti for wind instruments are established repertoire in many countries and he has also written major works for wind band - 'Festivo' (1985), 'The Sword and the Crown' (1991) and 'The Kings go Forth' (1996) and brass band - 'Connotations'(1997, 'Dances and Arias' (1984), 'Of Men and Mountains' (1991) and 'The Trumpets of the Angels ' (2000).
His music for the theatre includes commissions from the Royal Shakespeare Company - 'The Plantagenets' trilogy (1988) and 'Henry lV parts 1 and 2' (1990) - and the York Cycle of Mystery Plays (1976 and 1980). In 1988 he was nominated for an Ivor Novello award for his title music for BBC Television's 'Young Musician of the Year' programmes, for which he has also regularly officiated as a jury member and broadcaster.
Edward Gregson is Principal of the Royal Northern College of Music, having previously held the position of Professor of music at Goldsmiths College, University of London. He is an Honorary Professor of Music at the University of Manchester and in 1996 was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music from the University of Sunderland (his city of birth). He is a Fellow of the Royal Northern College of Music, the Royal Academy of Music, and the Royal College of Music. He was Chairman of the Association of Professional Composers (UK) from 1989-91 and has represented British composers' interests internationally on many occasions. He is currently a Director of the Performing Right Society, the Hallé Orchestra, the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music; a governor of Chetham's School of Music, and a trustee of the national Foundation for Youth Music.
CHRIS HAZELL
studied composition with Herbert Howells at the Royal College of Music before joining the Argo division of Decca in 1973 as a producer. There he continued the legendary recordings of Sir Neville Marriner, Philip Jones, King's College Cambridge and Peter Hurford amongst others. As the Decca Group labels evolved his artist base widened to incorporate such names as Sir Georg Solti, Dame Joan Sutherland, Charles Dutoit and Sir Charles Mackerras, the Berlin, Chicago, and Montreal Symphonies and all the major London Orchestras, becoming Senior Producer in 1992. His many recordings with David Zinman in Baltimore have continued (after he went freelance in 1997) with the Tonhalle Orchestra in Zurich, on their award winning Beethoven Symphony cycle.
Parallel to this has been his work as arranger and composer. His 'Brass Cats' (written for Philip Jones) is standard repertoire world-wide. He has worked extensively with Dame Kiri te Kanawa, and was both producer and arranger on Bryn Terfel's best-selling Welsh album. He also works regularly with Angela Gheorghiu. He has written music for television, including the title theme for the late Desmond Wilcox's award winning documentary series 'The Visit.'
He has received many commissions, including large-scale children's choral pieces, having regular performances at major venues such as the Royal Albert Hall.
He lives near Whipsnade Zoo (not in it!).
GORDON LEWIN
Born in Manchester, Gordon Lewin studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music. He played for two seasons with Southport Municipal Orchestra, then spent five years in the RAF.
1946 found him in London doing studio work for films, radio and TV. He was a member of the Krein Saxophone Quartet, the Melachrino Orchestra and the BBC TV Orchestra. He performed on over 100 film soundtracks. TV series include 'Dr. Who', 'Blake's Seven', 'Hancock's Half Hour', the 'Goon Show', and 'Carry On' films.
He lives in Middlesex and from 1970 to 1991 he taught clarinet, saxophone and arranging in the Music Department of Middlesex Polytechnic. He was Chairman of the Clarinet and Saxophone Society 1986 - 1989. He has over 70 published arrangements and compositions specialising in woodwind.
