John Hopkins (composer)
Encyclopedia
Education
Hopkins studied at University College Cardiff. There his teachers included Alun HoddinottAlun Hoddinott
Alun Hoddinott CBE , was a Welsh composer of classical music, one of the first to receive international recognition.-Life and works:...
and Arnold Whittall
Arnold Whittall
Arnold Whittall is a British musicologist and writer. He is Professor Emeritus at King's College London. Between 1975 and 1996 he was Professor at King's...
. He also took composition lessons with Peter Maxwell Davies
Peter Maxwell Davies
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, CBE is an English composer and conductor and is currently Master of the Queen's Music.-Biography:...
. He graduated in 2000 from University of Sussex
University of Sussex
The University of Sussex is an English public research university situated next to the East Sussex village of Falmer, within the city of Brighton and Hove. The University received its Royal Charter in August 1961....
with a D.Phil.
Career
Hopkins was elected as a regional composer-in-residence by the Eastern Arts Association (now Arts Council England East) in 1979. After several teaching positions, he is now co-ordinator of Practice-Based Studies at the Faculty of Music (University of CambridgeUniversity of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
), and Director of Studies for Music at Homerton College, Cambridge
Homerton College, Cambridge
Homerton College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England.With around 1,200 students, Homerton has more students than any other Cambridge college, although less than half of these live in the college. The college has a long and complex history dating back to the...
.
Works
His For the Far Journey (1981) was commissioned and premièred by the Geminii Ensemble and has been described as illustrating characteristics of Hopkin's music, namely 'attractive textures and effective pacing'. White Winter, Black Spring is a composition for two voices and large instrumental ensemble; Hopkins used poems by Robert LowellRobert Lowell
Robert Traill Spence Lowell IV was an American poet, considered the founder of the confessional poetry movement. He was appointed the sixth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress where he served from 1947 until 1948...
for this work commissioned by the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
.
Some major pieces
- For the Far Journey (1981)
- The Magic Mountain (1983)
- White Winter, Black Spring (1985)
- Faustus (1986)
- Double Concerto for trumpet and saxophone (1994)
- Akhmatova Songs (2005)
- The Floating World, for mezzo-soprano and orchestra (2008)
- Watching the Perseids (2008)