Events

• The recording of Benjamin Britten
  Benjamin Britten
  Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
  
  's War Requiem wins the composer three Grammy awards.

New works

• Arwel Hughes
  Arwel Hughes
  Arwel Hughes OBE , was a Welsh orchestral conductor and composer.Hughes was born in Rhosllannerchrugog near Wrexham and was educated at Ruabon Grammar School and at the Royal College of Music, where he studied with Ralph Vaughan Williams and C. H. Kitson...
  
   - Pantycelyn (oratorio)
• Grace Williams
  Grace Williams
  -Biography:Williams was born in Barry, near Cardiff, Wales.She was educated at Barry County School, and won a scholarship to Cardiff University . She then went to the Royal College of Music, London, where she was taught by Ralph Vaughan Williams...
  
   - Trumpet Concerto

Opera

• Richard Rodney Bennett
  Richard Rodney Bennett
  Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, CBE is an English composer renowned for his film scores and his jazz performance as much as for his challenging concert works...
  
   - The Mines of Sulphur
• Daniel Jones
  Daniel Jones (composer)
  Daniel Jenkyn Jones OBE was a composer of classical music, who worked in Britain. He used both serial and tonal techniques...
  
   - The Knife
• Malcolm Williamson
  Malcolm Williamson
  Malcolm Benjamin Graham Christopher Williamson AO , CBE was an Australian composer. He was the Master of the Queen's Music from 1975 until his death.-Biography:...
  
   - Our Man in Havana

Musical theatre

• July 4 - Première of Pickwick
  Pickwick (musical)
  Pickwick is a musical with a book by Wolf Mankowitz, music by Cyril Ornadel, and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse. Based on The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens, it is set in and around London and Rochester in 1828....
  
  , with music by Cyril Ornadel
  Cyril Ornadel
  Cyril Ornadel was a British conductor, songwriter and composer chiefly in musical theatre.Cyril Ornadel was born in London. He studied at the Royal College of Music. During the 1950s he was famous for conducting the orchestra for the hit TV show The Sunday Night At The Palladium...
  
   and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse
  Leslie Bricusse
  Leslie Bricusse is an English composer, lyricist, and playwright.Although best known for his partnership with Anthony Newley, Bricusse has worked with many other composers. He was educated at University College School in London and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge...
  
  , starring Harry Secombe
  Harry Secombe
  Sir Harry Donald Secombe CBE was a Welsh entertainer with a talent for comedy and a noted fine tenor singing voice. He is best known for playing Neddie Seagoon, the central character in the BBC radio comedy series The Goon Show...
  
   in the title role.

Births

• February 19 - Seal, singer
• April 8 - Julian Lennon
  Julian Lennon
  John Charles Julian Lennon is an English musician, songwriter, actor, and photographer. He is the son of John Lennon and Lennon's first wife, Cynthia Powell. Beatles manager Brian Epstein was his godfather. He has a younger half-brother, Sean Lennon. Lennon was named after his paternal...
  
  , musician son of John Lennon
  John Lennon
  John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
  
  
• June 25 - George Michael
  George Michael
  George Michael is a British musician, singer, songwriter and record producer who rose to fame in the 1980s when he formed the pop duo Wham! with his school friend, Andrew Ridgeley...
  
  , singer and songwriter
• July 6 - Stuart Garrard, guitarist
• September 19 - Jarvis Cocker
  Jarvis Cocker
  Jarvis Branson Cocker is an English musician and frontman for the band Pulp. Through his work with the band, Cocker became a figurehead of the Britpop movement of the mid-1990s. Following Pulp's hiatus Cocker has led a successful solo career...
  
  , singer and songwriter (Pulp
  Pulp (band)
  Pulp are an English alternative rock band formed in Sheffield in 1978. Their lineup consists of Jarvis Cocker , Russell Senior , Candida Doyle , Mark Webber , Steve Mackey and Nick Banks ....
  
  )
• November 1 - Rick Allen
  Rick Allen (drummer)
  Richard John Cyril "Rick" Allen is the drummer for the English hard rock band Def Leppard. He is famous for overcoming the complete amputation of his left arm and continuing to play with the band, which subsequently went on to its greatest popular success worldwide...
  
  , drummer (Def Leppard
  Def Leppard
  Def Leppard are an English rock band formed in 1977 in Sheffield as part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement. Since 1992, the band have consisted of Joe Elliott , Rick Savage , Rick Allen , Phil Collen , and Vivian Campbell...
  
  )

Deaths

• 11 December - Anthony Collins, conductor and composer (b. 1893)
• 26 December - Gwynn Parry Jones
  Gwynn Parry Jones
  Parry Jones , known early in his career as Gwynn Jones, was a Welsh tenor of the mid-twentieth century.-Life and career:...
  
  , singer (b. 1891)
• date unknown - Anthony Bernard
  Anthony Bernard
  Anthony Bernard was an English conductor, organist, pianist and composer.-Early life:He was born Alan Charles Butler, the son of a Thames lighterman and changed his name by deed poll in 1919 according to the National Archives....
  
  , organist, pianist, conductor and composer (b. 1891)