Peter McGarr is an English classical composer and teacher, working in the English experimental tradition and inspired by Northern English landscape and culture. Photo of English composer, Peter McGarr, taken in 2022

Biography

McGarr was born in

Openshaw Openshaw is a suburb of Manchester, Greater Manchester, England, about three miles east of the Manchester city centre. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Lancashire, Openshaw was incorporated into the city of Manchester in 1890. ...

, Manchester, and attended Ducie Technical High School for Boys, now

Manchester Academy The Manchester Academy, originally known as the University of Manchester Main Hall, is composed of four concert venues, located on the campus of the University of Manchester, in Manchester, England. The four venues are: Academy 1, 2 and 3 and ...

. He studied Music and Dance at Mather College (now part of

Manchester University The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

) and is self-taught in composition. For several years he taught

steel pan The steelpan (also known as a pan or steel drum) is a musical instrument originating in Trinidad and Tobago from Afro-Trinidadians. Steelpan musicians are called pannists. In 1992, the steelpan was declared Trinidad and Tobago’s national in ...

, achieving the Outstanding Performance Award from Music for Youth for his steel band 'Orchestral Steel', appearing in the School Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in 1984 and 1986. He has received the Butterworth Prize for Composition from the

Society for the Promotion of New Music The Society for the Promotion of New Music (SPNM), originally named The Committee for the Promotion of New Music, was founded in January 1943 in London by the émigré composer Francis Chagrin, to promote the creation and performance of new music i ...

and has been nominated for Music Teacher of the Year, the British Composer Awards, the

Paul Hamlyn Paul Hamlyn, Baron Hamlyn, (born Paul Bertrand Wolfgang Hamburger; 12 February 1926 – 31 August 2001) was a German-born British publisher and philanthropist, who established the Paul Hamlyn Foundation in 1987. Early life He was born Paul Be ...

foundation Awards and the Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship. He has led composition workshops at the

Edinburgh International Festival The Edinburgh International Festival is an annual arts festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, spread over the final three weeks in August. Notable figures from the international world of music (especially european classical music, classical music) and ...

and also engaged extensively with musical activities involving the elderly and people with

dementia Dementia is a syndrome associated with many neurodegenerative diseases, characterized by a general decline in cognitive abilities that affects a person's ability to perform activities of daily living, everyday activities. This typically invo ...

Style and influences

McGarr has been influenced by the sounds and changing culture of the Northern English people and landscape. His piece "Hillclouds, Rainwindows and Vanishing Orchestras" has been described as "integrat ngtremolo sounds into a subtle patchwork of changing harmonies".

Works and commissions

He has received performances and commissions from many leading musicians, orchestras and festivals including the

BBC Proms The BBC Proms is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in central London. Robert Newman founded The Proms in 1895. Since 1927, the ...

at the Royal Albert Hall,

London Sinfonietta The London Sinfonietta is an English contemporary chamber music, chamber orchestra founded in 1968 and based in London. The ensemble has headquarters at Kings Place and is Resident Orchestra at the Southbank Centre. Since its inaugural concert ...

Joanna MacGregor Joanna Clare MacGregor (born 16 July 1959) is a British concert pianist, conductor, composer, and festival curator. She is Head of Piano at the Royal Academy of Music and a professor of the University of London. She was artistic director of t ...

, Ensemble Bash, Three Strange Angels, Passacaglia, oboeworks, Cappella Nova, The Crossing, Kevin Bowyer, Ruth Morley, and Emily Andrews. He was commissioned by the Tallis Festival to write a 40-part companion piece to

Thomas Tallis Thomas Tallis (; also Tallys or Talles; 23 November 1585) was an English composer of High Renaissance music. His compositions are primarily vocal, and he occupies a primary place in anthologies of English choral music. Tallis is considered one ...

's ''

Spem in alium ''Spem in alium'' (Latin for "Hope in any other") is a 40-part Renaissance motet by Thomas Tallis, composed in c. 1570 for eight choirs of five voices each. It is considered by some critics to be the greatest piece of English early music. H. B. ...

''. The resulting work, ''Lindisfarne Love Song'' (also called ''Love You Big as the Sky'') included poems about

Lindisfarne Lindisfarne, also known as Holy Island, is a tidal island off the northeast coast of England, which constitutes the civil parishes in England, civil parish of Holy Island in Northumberland. Holy Island has a recorded history from the 6th centu ...

, diary notes and the detailed geography of the area including shipwrecks and lighthouses. An on-line campaign has since started, Lybats, to secure a performance of the piece on its "spiritual home" of Lindisfarne. 40 part motet, Lindisfarne Lovesong, climax point The Bath International Music Festival commissioned its largest ever piece; a choral work from McGarr, to celebrate the festival's 60th anniversary. The work was ''Homesongs'' and scored for over a 1,000 voices. McGarr won the 2013–14 British Composer Awards (Making Music Category) for his piece ''Dry Stone Walls of Yorkshire'', written for orchestra with soundtrack and features field recordings made on Saddleworth Moor.

Selected works

*''The Acoustics of

Morecambe Bay Morecambe Bay is an estuary in north-west England, just to the south of the Lake District National Park. It is the largest expanse of intertidal mudflats and sand in the United Kingdom, covering a total area of . In 1974, the second largest ga ...

'' for Percussion Quartet *''Creating a Wildflower Garden'' (''Wildflower Street'') for orchestra *''Dreaming England'' for mixed choir *''

Love Song'' (''Love You Big as the Sky'') for 40-part choir *''Sweet Steel Alone'' for solo tenor steel pan *''Tidelines ''for Javanese

gamelan Gamelan (; ; , ; ) is the traditional musical ensemble, ensemble music of the Javanese people, Javanese, Sundanese people, Sundanese, and Balinese people, Balinese peoples of Indonesia, made up predominantly of percussion instrument, per ...

*''Night Scented Stock'' for percussion and piano *''

Audlem Audlem ( ) is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Cheshire, North West England. In 2021, it had a population of 1,832. The largest village in southern Cheshire, Audlem is approximately south of Nantwich, just north of t ...

Sonatas'' for solo percussion *''Sound Asleep'' for percussion quartet *''Vanishing Games'' for oboe quartet *''The Buried Dreams of Our Lives'' for baroque ensemble *''Something Lost'' for flute and piano *''Eleven Nights with Glenn Gould'' for solo piano

Selected recordings

*''Something Lost'' (Sarah Brooke, flute; Elizabeth Burley, piano / British Music Label BML031) *''Dreaming England / Beautiful Days'' (Exmoor Singers of London: conductor James Jarvis) *''Vanishing Games'' (Oboe Quartet: oboeworks. / Dinmore Records DRD 066) *''Fieldthread'' (Flutes d'Accordes / Amalie Records ALACD 1202) *''Memory Trace'' (Tuba Quartet; Tubalate / TCD 5) *''Homesongs'' (Collected soundtracks / Broken Scissor Records BSR 01457) *''Sound Asleep'' (Ensemble Bash / SignumSIGCD 294)

References

External links

Peter McGarr
Website
Points North (excerpt) - Peter Mcgarr
Clip of 'Points-North' for three flutes {{DEFAULTSORT:McGarr, Peter English composers Living people Musicians from Manchester People educated at Ducie Technical High School for Boys Year of birth missing (living people)