Oliver Weeks (born in

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

) is an English

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

arranger In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orches ...

, and

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...

Education

Weeks grew up in Frome,

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

, and developed an early interest in classical music and '50s and '60s rock 'n' roll. He attended

Frome Community College Frome Community College, styled as Frome College, is a comprehensive school in Frome, Somerset, England for students aged 13 to 18. Approximately 1,200 were enrolled in December 2021, within the Three-tier education, three tier system. Students' ...

and then

Clare College, Cambridge Clare College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The college was founded in 1326 as University Hall, making it the second-oldest surviving college of the University after Peterhouse. It was refounded ...

, where he read music and received a starred First. A school visit to

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

in 1996 led to a deep engagement with Bengali poetry and music. Weeks wrote his undergraduate dissertation on baul music and

Rabindra Sangeet ''Rabindra Sangeet'' ( bn, রবীন্দ্র সঙ্গীত; ), also known as Tagore Songs, are songs from the Indian subcontinent written and composed by the Bengali polymath Rabindranath Tagore, winner of the 1913 Nobel Prize in Li ...

. He also created classical works based on original Bengali source material. He remained at Cambridge to complete an MPhil under Robin Holloway, and subsequently received his PhD in composition from the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is the oldest conservatoire in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the first Duke of ...

, London, studying with Simon Bainbridge and

Philip Cashian Philip Cashian (born 1963) is an English composer. He is the head of composition at the Royal Academy of Music. Biography Philip Cashian was born in Manchester in 1963 and studied at Cardiff University and the Guildhall School of Music and Dr ...

Compositions

Orchestras and ensembles who have performed his work include the

London Philharmonic Orchestra The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is one of five permanent symphony orchestras based in London. It was founded by the conductors Sir Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent in 1932 as a rival to the existing London Symphony and BBC Symphony ...

, the Philharmonia, the ensemble

Endymion Endymion primarily refers to: * Endymion (mythology), an Ancient Greek shepherd * ''Endymion'' (poem), by John Keats Endymion may also refer to: Fictional characters * Prince Endymion, a character in the ''Sailor Moon'' anime franchise * Raul ...

, the Royal Academy Soloists, and the

City of London Sinfonia City of London Sinfonia (CLS) is an English chamber orchestra based in London. CLS performs regularly across the city of London in venues from East London clubs to traditional Central London concert halls. CLS is orchestra-in-residence at Opera ...

Non-classical work and collaborations

After fieldwork on the Baul musicians (mystic poets and singers) of

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

, Weeks collaborated with the Bengali singer

Moushumi Bhowmik Moushumi Bhowmik (born 29 December 1964) is an Indian singer-songwriter, writer and researcher based in Kolkata, she is known to perform Bengali folk songs, as well as her own compositions. She has released four albums― ''Tumio Chil Hao'' (19 ...

to form the syncretic group Parapar. He also plays in the

instrumental An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to instru ...

metal A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...

band Astrohenge and formed the band

Khiyo Khiyo ( bn, ক্ষ) are an English fusion band of British and Bengali descent formed in London, England in 2007. The three core members of Khiyo are Sohini Alam on vocals, Oliver Weeks on guitar and piano, and Ben Heartland on bass. History ...

with singer

Sohini Alam Sohini Alam ( bn, সোহিনী আলম) is a British singer of Bangladeshi descent who sings in the bands Khiyo, Lokkhi Terra, and GRRRL. She has performed internationally on stage, radio, and television and worked on music for dance, ...

in 2007.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Weeks, Oliver 1978 births Living people 21st-century classical composers People from Frome Male classical composers 21st-century male musicians