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Edwin Roxburgh was born in Liverpool in 1937. He began his musical life as a cathedral chorister at the Anglican Cathedral and attended the Matthay School of Music in Liverpool. In his teens he played the oboe in the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and won a double scholarship to the Royal College of Music where he studied composition with Herbert Howells, and oboe with Terence MacDonagh. He continued his piano studies with Lamar Crowson. Further awards enabled him to study with Nadia Boulanger in Paris between 1960 and 1961, while at the same time studying privately with Luigi Dallapiccola in Florence. After his return from Europe he completed his extensive studies at St. John’s College, Cambridge and conducting with George Hurst. Edwin received his first commission at the age of twenty (a piece for the Merseyside Youth Orchestra) and also in that year conducted the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in his own Overture ‘57 After he had completed his studies Edwin was appointed principal oboist in the Sadlers Wells Opera. Subsequently, while a teacher at the Royal College of Music, he began a highly successful career as an oboist, establishing himself as a major interpreter of contemporary repertoire, especially as a virtuoso oboist, giving the UK premieres of Berio’s Sequenza Vii and Holliger’s Cardiophonie. He also established and conducted the 20 th Century Ensemble of London. This was reflected in this teaching when he founded the RCM’s Twentieth Century Ensemble as a Department of Twentieth Century Performance Studies. In collaboration with the late Leon Goosens he was the author of the Mehuhin Music Guide, The Oboe, now in its fourth edition. In 1960 Edwin won the Royal Philharmonic Society Prize, which was followed in 1962 by the Lili Boulanger Trust Award. In 1978 he was awarded a Collard Fellowship and in 1980 the Cobbett Medal for Services to Chamber Music from the Worshipful Company of Musicians. Edwin became a FRCM in 1976 and has been commissioned to compose over 60 works by people and organisations such as the BBC Proms, Three Choirs Festival, RLPO, London Philharmonic, RCM, BBC Singers, Yehudi Menuhin, and Nicholas Daniels, as well as being the composer of music for several films for BBC Television. Following his appointment as Vaughan Williams Fellow in Composition at the RCM, in 2003 he was awarded a Leverhulme Research Fellowship. He is the Associate Composer of the London Festival Orchestra at the Warehouse. As a conductor he has performed over 100 premieres and conducted most of the principal UK orchestras such as BBC Philharmonic, CBSO, RLPO and Philharmonia. In 2005 he was Acting Head of Composition at Birmingham Conservatoire A new CD featuring Edwin's piano music, Reflets dans la glace: sound adventures for piano, was released on the NMC label on 11th June 2007. Featuring performances by Waka Hasegawa & Joseph Tong, Thalia Myers, Hiroaki Takenouchi, Peter O'Hagan, Sally Mays, Karl Lutchmayer and George King, the CD can be ordered at www.nmcrec.co.uk. |
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Opera
Abelard
soloists, chorus and orchestra
Libretto by Edwin and Julie Roxburgh
Orchestral