Geoffrey Alvarez is a British/Nicaraguan composer and conductor. He chairs the annual international composition competition run by the Alvarez Chamber Orchestra.[1] He is also a writer on music and inventor of Gravesian Analysis.[2]
Geoffrey Alvarez | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1961 London |
| Occupation | Composer conductor writer librettist |
| Nationality | British |
| Website | |
| www | |
Education and work
editAlvarez studied composition privately with Giles Swayne, then with Paul Patterson at the Royal Academy of Music as a Leverhulme scholar, and later at the University of York with David Blake and Richard Orton, where he obtained a D.Phil.
Some of his papers are published in Gravesiana: The Journal of the Robert Graves Society, whilst he has contributed several articles for Tempo on the work of composers such as Michael Finnissy[3] and Alexander Goehr's Arianna.[4] His own work (his setting of Psalm XXIII in Hebrew) was reviewed in the same publication by Mark R. Taylor.[5]
His compositions range from the wind quintet The Travelling Musicians, performed by the Harlequin Wind Quintet in the Purcell Room in 2001 to seven symphonies and numerous operas including a collaboration with poet Ruth Fainlight commissioned by the Garden Venture of the Royal Opera House: The European Story.[6]
In November 2006, Geoffrey Alvarez returned from Poland as a prize-winning finalist and soloist with the Arthur Rubenstein Łódź Philharmonic Orchestra in the Final of the Tansman 6th International Competition of Musical Personalities, Composers Competition, Łódź 2006[7]
Selected works
editMusic
edit- Montage for Clarinet, Horn & Orchestra (1979)
- Symphony No. 1 (1980)
- TheTell-Tale Heart (Opera) (1981–3)
- Brass Etchings (1983)
- Oboe Concerto (1984–85)
- Three Madrigals for Chamber Choir (1986–8)
- Lament in Memoriam Anderson (1987)
- Hied and Seek for Soprano, Basson and Live Electronics (1987)
- Triptych for Soloists, double choir and orchestra (1989)
- Kerbcrawling for chamber ensemble (1989)
- String Quartet (1990)
- Sept Piece for Horn and Piano (1990)
- Obsessions for Flute Viola and Harp (1990)
- Oboe Quartet (1991)
- Emisori Rites, Chamber Opera for Eight Performers (1991)
- Songs My Parrot Taught Me (1992)
- The European Story, Opera (1992)
- Bastien and Bastienne Arias - Mozart, Recitatives - Geoffrey Alvarez (1993)
- The Laughing Lotus for Woodwind Quintet (1997)
- Symphony No. 2: The Five Seasons (1998)
- The Travelling Musicians a Pantomime for Wind Quintet (1999–2000)
- Psalm XXIII for soprano and piano (2000)
- My Last Muse for bass and orchestra (2000)
- Concertino: for piano and chamber orchestra (2001)
- El Duende: for tenor and piano (2002)
- Tríptico Nicaragüense: for tenor and piano
- Teares or Lamentations: Six Sundry Sights: for 10 course lute
- Magnificat: for SATB chorus (2004)
- The Old Jewish Cemetery in Lodz (2008)
- Fantasia on Tansman's Last Theme: Alla Polacca (2008)
- Symphony No. 3: El tempano (2008)
- Symphony No. 4: the Breath of Life, for thirteen winds (2009)
- Missa Regina Elissa: for chorus, timpani, organ and strings (2009)
- The Tripple Goddess, Concerto Grosso for Flute, Violin, Harp and Chamber Orchestra (2009)
- Symphony No. 5: Ceridwen's Cauldron for three harps and two pianos (2010)
- Symphony No 7: Hyperborea (2010)
- Hölderlinfenster, song cycle for high voice and piano (2013)
- St Paul's Shipwreck, Organ Symphony for organ and brass ensemble (2015)
Awards and honours
edit- Eric Coates Composition Prize, Royal Academy of Music, 1979
- Josiah Parker Composition Prize, Royal Academy of Music, 1980
- Royal Overseas League 'Bernard Shore' Composition Award 1990.
- Recommended work: I International Uuno Klami Composition Competition 2003–2004
- Fourth Prize in The Tansman 6th International Competition of Musical Personalities, Composers Competition, Łódź 2006
References
edit- ^ "Musique sans Frontiers Composition Competition". Archived from the original on 23 November 2017. Retrieved 24 July 2015.
- ^ "Geoffrey Alvarez (1999). The Five Seasons: Graves's Goddess Sings. Gravesiana, Vol 2, No 2. 165-176" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 24 July 2015.
- ^ Tempo, no. 205 (July 1998), p 25, Cambridge University Press
- ^ Tempo, no. 208 (April 1999), p 52, Cambridge University Press
- ^ Tempo, no. 217 (July 2001), p 53, Cambridge University Press
- ^ Fainlight R. Selected Poems. Sinclair-Stevenson: London 1995
- ^ "Interview with David Bruce on Composition Today". Retrieved 24 July 2015.