Lennox Berkeley

Sir Lennox Randal Francis Berkeley ( born May 12, 1903 in Oxford, England; † 26 December 1989 ) was an English composer.

Life

Berkeley received his education at Gresham 's School in Norfolk and at Merton College, Oxford. In 1927 he went to Paris to study music with Nadia Boulanger, and joined the acquaintance of Francis Poulenc, Igor Stravinsky, Darius Milhaud, Arthur Honegger and Albert Roussel. During the Second World War he worked for the BBC and later became president of the Performing Rights Society. In 1974 he was made a Knight Bachelor. From 1946 to 1968 he was professor of composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London, were among his students there, as Richard Rodney Bennett, David Bedford, William Mathias, Nicholas Maw and John Tavener, and his son Michael Berkeley.

Work

Berkeley wrote chamber music, orchestral works ( including 4 symphonies ), as well as choral and stage compositions. A French influence has remained permanently felt in Berkeley's music. The orchestral suite Mont Juic was created in 1937 as a joint composition by Benjamin Britten (as Berkeley's Opus 9, while Britten's Opus 12 ).

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