Adam Pounds (born ) is a British composer and conductor, mostly active in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

Biography

Adam Pounds is the first living British composer recorded by the

Sinfonia of London Sinfonia of London is a symphony orchestra based in London, England, conducted by John Wilson. The present orchestra, re-established by Wilson in 2018, is the third of three distinct ensembles to bear this name. Building on Sinfonia of London ...

and its conductor,

John Wilson John Wilson may refer to: Academics * John Wilson (historian) (1799–1870), author of ''Our Israelitish Origin'' (1840), a founding text of British Israelism * John Wilson (agriculturalist) (1812–1888), British agriculturalist * John Matthias ...

.''Recordings'', Sinfonia of London
/ref> Born in

Walthamstow Walthamstow ( or ) is a town within the London Borough of Waltham Forest in east London. The town borders Chingford to the north, Snaresbrook and South Woodford to the east, Leyton and Leytonstone to the south, and Tottenham to the west. At ...

, in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, to Edward Pounds and Annie Pounds (née Crisp).Adam Pounds biography, Composer's website
/ref>, he moved to Cambridge with his wife, Dinah Pounds,''Councillor Dinah Pounds'', Cambridge City Council
/ref> and their two children, in 2000.''Cambridge Soundtrack'', Cambridge Alumni Magazine (issue 103)
/ref>

Education

As a child, Pounds was a chorister at St Michael's Church, in Walthamstow. Educated at William Morris High School, he was accepted to the

London College of Music London College of Music (LCM) is a music school in London, England. It is one of eight separate schools that make up the University of West London. History LCM was founded in 1887 and existed as an independent music conservatoire based at ...

where he studied oboe, guitar, composition and conducting, the latter under Christopher Fry. His oboe quartet won the Lillian Hunt Memorial prize for composition. Pounds later took private composition lessons from

Lennox Berkeley Sir Lennox Randal Francis Berkeley CBE (12 May 190326 December 1989) was an English composer. Biography Berkeley was born on 12 May 1903 in Oxford, England, the younger child and only son of Aline Carla (1863–1935), daughter of Sir James ...

, to whom he had sent the prize-winning oboe quartet by way of introduction.''Only the Notes You Need'', British Music Society
/ref> Pounds continued his studies at

Goldsmiths' College Goldsmiths, University of London, formerly Goldsmiths College, University of London, is a constituent research university of the University of London. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by ...

, graduating with a BMus (Hons) degree. In 2002, Pounds began studying for a

MEd MED or med may refer to: Healthcare * Medical extrication device, a device for extricating an injured patient from an accident site, such as the Kendrick extrication device * Medication, often used in the plural "meds" * Medicine (or medical) * ...

Trinity Hall, Cambridge Trinity Hall (formally The College or Hall of the Holy Trinity in the University of Cambridge, colloquially "Tit Hall" ) is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1350, it is th ...

, where his research focused on the decline of classical music provision in

state schools A state school, public school, or government school is a primary or secondary school that educates all students without charge. They are funded in whole or in part by taxation and operated by the government of the state. State-funded schools a ...

. During his studies at Trinity Hall, Pounds joined the choir of

Great St Mary's St Mary the Great is a Church of England parish and university church at the north end of King's Parade in central Cambridge, England. It is known locally as Great St Mary's or simply GSM to distinguish it from " Little St Mary's". It is one of ...

, the University Church.

Work and Musical Advocacy

During his studies, Pounds worked as a music copyist for the BBC, preparing parts for major works by

Harrison Birtwistle Sir Harrison Birtwistle (15 July 1934 – 18 April 2022) was an English composer of contemporary classical music best known for his operas, often based on mythological subjects. Among his many compositions, his better known works include '' T ...

William Alwyn William Alwyn (born William Alwyn Smith; 7 November 1905 – 11 September 1985), was a prolific English composer, Conducting, conductor, and music teacher who composed over 200 cinematic scores, of which some 70 were for full-length features, ...

and others, to be performed by the

BBC Symphony Orchestra The BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBC SO) is a British orchestra based in London. Founded in 1930, it was the first permanent salaried orchestra in London, and is the only one of the city's five major symphony orchestras not to be self-governing. The ...

, continuing this work after leaving music college. He also worked for Crescendo, a jazz magazine, as an administrative assistant, and taught at

Long Road Sixth Form College Long Road Sixth Form College (LRSFC) is a state co-educational sixth form college in Cambridge, England. It is on Long Road, from which it draws its name, and is next to the Cambridge Bio-Medical Campus which encompasses Addenbrooke's Hospital ...

. Pounds founded and conducted the Nelson Orchestra,

Waltham Forest The London Borough of Waltham Forest () is an outer London borough formed in 1965 from the merger of the municipal boroughs of Leyton, Walthamstow and Chingford. The borough's administrative headquarters are at Waltham Forest Town Hall, wh ...

, in 1981. He subsequently founded the Academy of Great St. Mary's at the University Church in Cambridge, where some of his later works have received their debut.Academy of Great St.Mary's Orchestral and Choral Concert, University of Cambridge
/ref> Pounds also conducts the Stapleford Choral Society. Between 2015 and 2021, then again from 2024, Pounds also served as the chairman of the Lennox Berkeley Society, which encourages the performance, study, recording and broadcast of his former tutor's work. Along with his wife, Dinah, Pounds has co-founded the Romsey Music Project, producing an ongoing series of free and accessible concerts in Romsey Town where Dinah Pounds has served as a City Councillor since 2021, as Deputy Mayor of Cambridge in 2024-25, and as Mayor of Cambridge from May 2025.

Compositions

Pounds' early orchestral compositions include the Sinfonietta (1979) and the ''Gaelic Triptych'' (1983). His ''Festival Overture'' (1987) was commissioned by the Waltham Forest Arts Festival.''Adam Pounds: London Cantata''
reviewed at ''The Land of Lost Content'' The Violin Concerto was first performed at the

Stansted Stansted Airport is an international airport serving London, the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It is located near Stansted Mountfitchet, Uttlesford, Essex, northeast of Central London. As London's third-busiest airport, Stan ...

Festival in 1995. Chamber works include three string quartets: No. 1 (1978); the one movement Second String Quartet (2003); and the String Quartet No. 3, completed in 2022. There are also vocal works, such as the ''Shakespeare Sonnets'' for voice, flute and piano, the ''London Cantata'', and an opera, ''Syn'' (2005), based on

Russell Thorndike Arthur Russell Thorndike (6 February 1885 – 7 November 1972) was a British actor and novelist, best known for the Doctor Syn of Romney Marsh novels. Less well-known than his sister Sybil but equally versatile, Russell Thorndike's first lov ...

Dr Syn The Reverend Doctor Christopher Syn is the smuggler hero of a series of novels by Russell Thorndike. The first book, ''Doctor Syn: A Tale of the Romney Marsh'' was published in 1915. The story idea came from legendary coastal smuggling in the ...

character. The opera has been performed at the Mumford Theatre, Cambridge. ''The Martyrdom of Latimer'' was commissioned in 2009 to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Ely Sinfonia. It explores the final days of the life of the cleric

Hugh Latimer Hugh Latimer ( – 16 October 1555) was a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, and Bishop of Worcester during the Reformation, and later Church of England chaplain to King Edward VI. In 1555 under the Catholic Queen Mary I he was burned at the ...

, his death at the stake and his

martyrdom A martyr (, ''mártys'', 'witness' stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external party. In colloqui ...

, using modal themes and liturgical ideas combined with strong rhythmic statements. It is written for a fairly large orchestra, employing four

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

parts, with two of the players intended to be sited in a gallery. The piece was premiered in

Ely Cathedral Ely Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Ely, is an Church of England, Anglican cathedral in the city of Ely, Cambridgeshire, England. The cathedral can trace its origin to the abbey founded in Ely in 67 ...

on . The ''London Cantata'', completed in 2017, returns to Pounds' city of birth, reflecting on the historical diversity of life in the capital, set to the words of

Wilfred Owen Wilfred Edward Salter Owen Military Cross, MC (18 March 1893 – 4 November 1918) was an English poet and soldier. He was one of the leading poets of the First World War. His war poetry on the horrors of Trench warfare, trenches and Chemi ...

Amy Levy Amy Judith Levy (10 November 1861 – 9 September 1889) was an English essayist, poet, and novelist best remembered for her literary gifts; her experience as the third Jewish woman at Cambridge University, and as the second Jewish student at N ...

George Eliot Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrot ...

and

William Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poetry, Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romanticism, Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Balla ...

, among others. In 2018 Pounds continued composing a series of numbered symphonies, with Symphony No. 3 (2021) recorded in November 2022 by

and the

, to whom it is dedicated, their first recording of a living British composer.Fiona Maddox. Chandos CHSA5324 review in ''The Guardian'', 3 February, 2024
/ref> Written in response to the

COVID-19 lockdowns During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of Non-pharmaceutical intervention (epidemiology), non-pharmaceutical interventions, particularly lockdowns (encompassing stay-at-home orders, curfews, quarantines, and similar socie ...

imposed in 2020 and 2021, Pounds states that the piece captures the ‘sadness, humour, determination and defiance’ which everyone faced at this time – not least musicians. Its concert

premiere A premiere, also spelled première, (from , ) is the debut (first public presentation) of a work, i.e. play, film, dance, musical composition, or even a performer in that work. History Raymond F. Betts attributes the introduction of the ...

took place in

Great St Mary's Church St Mary the Great is a Church of England parish and university church at the north end of King's Parade in central Cambridge, England. It is known locally as Great St Mary's or simply GSM to distinguish it from " Little St Mary's". It is one of t ...

in Cambridge on , conducted by the composer. The Symphony No. 4 was also premiered in Cambridge on , followed by Pounds' Nocturne for Choir and Orchestra on .8th December 2024, Great St Mary's Orchestra
/ref>

Style and Influences

Pounds' compositional style is in the symphonic tradition, and although he has used some so-called modern methods including serialism and minimalism, he has followed a line through composers such as

Shostakovich Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his Symphony No. 1 (Shostakovich), First Symphony in 1926 and thereafter was regarded ...

Hindemith Paul Hindemith ( ; ; 16 November 189528 December 1963) was a German and American composer, music theorist, teacher, violist and conductor. He founded the Amar Quartet in 1921, touring extensively in Europe. As a composer, he became a major ad ...

Vaughan Williams Ralph Vaughan Williams ( ; 12 October 1872– 26 August 1958) was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over ...

and Bartók. He also gained much from his time studying with Lennox Berkeley, who advised him to 'write only the notes you need'; during this time Pounds was able to refine his form and find direction. Pounds has drawn inspiration from his travels, writing his ''Gaelic Triptych'' after a holiday in the

Scottish Highlands The Highlands (; , ) is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Scottish Lowlands, Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Scots language, Lowland Scots language replaced Scottish Gae ...

. Its second movement, subtitled ''

Corgarff Castle Corgarff Castle is located slightly west of the village of Corgarff, in Aberdeenshire, north-east Scotland. It stands by the Lecht road, which crosses the pass between Strathdon and Tomintoul. Life The castle was built around 1530 by the Elph ...

'', evokes a misty picture of a lonely and deserted garrison, while the third, subtitled ''Drumossie Moor'', is a tribute to the Scots butchered in the

Battle of Culloden The Battle of Culloden took place on 16 April 1746, near Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. A Jacobite army under Charles Edward Stuart was decisively defeated by a British government force commanded by the Duke of Cumberland, thereby endi ...

, ending with an orchestration of an ancient bagpipe tune. Another programmatic work, ''Northern Picture'', is a collage of dance, mysticism and combat, influenced by the

Castlerigg stone circle Castlerigg Stone Circle (alternatively Keswick Carles, or Carles) is situated on a prominent hill to the east of Keswick, in the Lake District National Park, North West England. It is one of around 1,300 stone circles in the British Isles and ...

. While Pounds' earlier work, ''Life Cycle'', shares the same idea of programme, the inspiration is far more abstract, dwelling on life's journey. The fullness of life is represented by a strong minimalist section. His String Quartet No. 2, composed in 2003, contrasts war-like themes with images of reason and meditation. Pounds describes that, although he had always been involved with the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

, he went through a "political and hot-headed" period; this piece was written as he was returning to religion. More recently, Pounds' Symphony No. 3 (2021) expresses the composer's various emotional reactions to the impact and psychological effects of the

. Regarding his time in the choir of Great St Mary's Church, Pounds has described his choral experience as beneficial to his work as a musician, explaining that "when you’re arranging instrumentation and conducting, it's important to understand choir and orchestra together". In addition to the poems set in the ''London Cantata'', Pounds' vocal works include settings of poems by

William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake has become a seminal figure in the history of the Romantic poetry, poetry and visual art of the Roma ...

G. K. Chesterton Gilbert Keith Chesterton (29 May 1874 – 14 June 1936) was an English author, philosopher, Christian apologist, journalist and magazine editor, and literary and art critic. Chesterton created the fictional priest-detective Father Brow ...

and

W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (, 13 June 186528 January 1939), popularly known as W. B. Yeats, was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer, and literary critic who was one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the ...

.''A Cradle Song'', YouTube
/ref>''The Christ-Child'', YouTube
/ref>''Dreams'', YouTube
/ref>

List of works

Orchestral

* Symphony No. 4 (2023) * Symphony No. 3 (2021) * Symphony No. 2 (2019) * Interludes from ''Syn'' (2005) * Flute Concertino (1999) * ''Northern Picture'' (1993) * ''Life Cycle'' (1992) * Violin Concerto (1989) * Festival Overture (1987) * Symphony No. 1 (1985) * ''Gaelic Triptych'' (1981) * Sinfonietta (1979) * ''The Martyrdom of Latimer'' (2009)

Chamber

* Sonata for Flute and Piano (2020) * Clarinet Quintet (2013) * Sextet (2012) * String Quartet No. 2 (2003) * A Prelude to Bach (for organ) (1997) * Sonata for Violin and Piano (1986) * Wind Quintet (1984)

Vocal

* Nocturne for Choir and Orchestra (2024) * ''Dreams'' (2018) * ''London Cantata'' (2016, rev. 2023) * ''Veni, Redemptor Gentium'' (2016) * ''Behold, the Great Creator Makes'' (2012) * ''Time'' (2011) * ''The Christ-Child'' (2011) * ''Christmas Evocation'' (2008) * ''A Cradle Song'' (2007)

Opera

* ''Syn'' (2005)

Discography

* Shostakovich String Quartet No. 3, Barber, Pounds String Quartets (2005) * The Nelson Orchestra 25th Anniversary Recording (Walton, Pounds, Vaughan Williams) (2006) * Magnificat - Christmas from Cambridge (2007) * ''Resurrection'' (2011) * ''Entr'acte'' (2013) * ''London Cantata'' (2016) * Symphony (2018) * ''Time'' (2018) * Sonata (2020)''Sonata'', Apple Music
/ref> * Ravel / Berkeley / Pounds: Orchestra Works (2024)

References

External links

Composer's website

The Lennox Berkeley Society

Academy of Great St Mary's

Stapleford Choral Society

Romsey Music Project

National Jazz Archive: Crescendo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pounds, Adam 1954 births Living people Alumni of Goldsmiths, University of London Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge Musicians from the London Borough of Waltham Forest People from Walthamstow 21st-century British composers 20th-century British composers