Sir Lennox Randal Francis Berkeley (May 12, 1903 – December 26, 1989) was a British composer.

Biography

He was born in Oxford, England, and educated at Gresham's School and Merton College, Oxford. In 1927, he went to Paris to study music with Nadia Boulanger, and there he became acquainted with Francis Poulenc, Igor Stravinsky, Darius Milhaud, Arthur Honegger and Albert Roussel. The French influence would continue to be felt in his music. He worked for the BBC during the Second World War, and later became president of the Performing Rights Society. He was knighted in 1974. He held the chair of Professor of Composition at the Royal Academy of Music from 1946 to 1968, and his pupils there included Richard Rodney Bennett, David Bedford and John Tavener. He enjoyed a long association with Benjamin Britten, another old boy of Gresham's School, with whom he collaborated on a number of works. In later years, his adoption of serialism marked a darker and more brooding style. His son, Michael Berkeley, is also a composer.

Career highlights

• 1926 - began lessons with Nadia Boulanger.
• 1936 - met Britten at ISCM Festival in Barcelona.
• 1946 - appointed Professor of Composition at London’s Royal Academy of Music.
• 1954 - premiere of his first opera Nelson at Sadler’s Wells.
• 1974 - knighted for Services to Music.
• 1977-83 - President of Cheltenham Festival.

Key works

• Serenade for Strings (1939)
• Divertimento (1943; orchestra)
• Four Poems of St Teresa of Avila (1947; contralto, strings)
• Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano (1953)
• A Dinner Engagement (1954; opera)
• Missa Brevis (1960; choir, organ)

Selected recordings

• A Dinner Engagement - Chandos CHAN10219
• Missa Brevis - Naxos 8.557277
• Serenade for Strings - Chandos CHAN 9981

External links

• Lennox Berkeley's homepage at Chester Music
• The Lennox Berkeley Society

1903 births | 1989 deaths | 20th century classical composers | English composers

Lennox Berkeley | Lennox Berkeley