Rory Boyle is a Scottish composer and currently Professor of Composition at the

Royal Conservatoire of Scotland The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland ( gd, Conservatoire Rìoghail na h-Alba), formerly the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama ( gd, Acadamaidh Rìoghail Ciùil is Dràma na h-Alba) is a conservatoire of dance, drama, music, production, and ...

Early life and education

Boyle was born in Ayr, Scotland on 9 March 1951. His father was a Major in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and his mother a very talented amateur pianist and accordionist. His parents separated when he was 5 years old, and he and his sister were brought up by their mother, firstly in Edinburgh and then on a farm in Stirlingshire. He was a chorister at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor and then won a music bursary to Eton College.

Career

Encouraged by his music teacher Boyle studied composition with Frank Spedding at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (now The

). He also studied piano (with Lawrence Glover), organ (with George McPhee) and harpsichord (with Andrew Davis who, at the time, was associate conductor of the

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (BBC SSO) is a Scottish broadcasting symphony orchestra based in Glasgow. One of five full-time orchestras maintained by the British Broadcasting Corporation ( BBC), it is the oldest full-time professional r ...

) during his studies there. He then went on to win a Caird Scholarship to study privately with

Lennox Berkeley Sir Lennox Randal Francis Berkeley (12 May 190326 December 1989) was an English composer. Biography Berkeley was born on 12 May 1903 in Oxford, England, the younger child and only son of Aline Carla (1863–1935), daughter of Sir James Char ...

in London. As the conductor

Nicholas Cleobury Nicholas Cleobury (born 23 June 1950) is an English conductor. Cleobury was organ scholar at Worcester College, Oxford, conductor of Schola Cantorum of Oxford and held assistant organist posts at Chichester Cathedral and Christ Church, Oxford b ...

wrote in the 1998 Proms programme, “Boyle chose his teachers well: Spedding encouraged his individual voice; Berkeley reduced wastage and honed his orchestration”. Whilst still a student at the RSAMD Boyle won the BBC Scottish Composers’ Prize with his first orchestral score and further important awards followed. These included two Royal Philharmonic Prizes, as well as the Zaiks Prize in the International Competition set up in memory of

Kazimierz Serocki Kazimierz Serocki (3 March 1922 – 9 January 1981) was a Polish composer and one of the founders of the Warsaw Autumn contemporary music festival. Life Serocki was born in Toruń. He studied composition with Kazimierz Sikorski and piano w ...

, one of the leading figures in the Polish avant garde, for his orchestral score '' Winter Music '' which was premièred in Cracow in 1987. His list of works covers most genres and he has received commissions from many societies, festivals and organisations. He has also written for many leading performers including

Evelyn Glennie Dame Evelyn Elizabeth Ann Glennie, (born 19 July 1965) is a Scottish percussionist. She was selected as one of the two laureates for the Polar Music Prize of 2015. Early life Glennie was born in Methlick, Aberdeenshire in Scotland. The in ...

('' Marimba Concerto ''),

Michael Chance Michael Chance CBE (born in Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom 7 March 1955) is an English countertenor and the founder and Artistic Director of The Grange Festival. Chance was born in Penn, Buckinghamshire, into a musical family. After growing ...

('' Lord Lundy ''),

Nicholas Daniel Nicholas Daniel (born 9 January 1962) is a British oboe, oboist and conductor. In 2003 he was appointed Artistic Director of the Leicester International Music Festival. Education He was educated at Salisbury Cathedral School and the Purcell S ...

('' Oboe Concerto – Sorella ''), David Hubbard ('' Bassoon Concerto – That Blessed Wood ''), Fine Arts Brass Quintet ('' Giochi di Sospiri '' and '' Elegy for the Black Bitch '' – nominated for a British Composer Award in 2005), and Karen Cargill ('' Watching Over You ''). He has collaborated with several writers, including

Vikram Seth Vikram Seth (born 20 June 1952) is an Indian novelist and poet. He has written several novels and poetry books. He has won several awards such as Padma Shri, Sahitya Academy Award, Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, WH Smith Literary Award and Crosswor ...

('' 8 Beastly Tales ''),

Richard Stilgoe Sir Richard Henry Simpson Stilgoe (born 28 March 1943) is a British songwriter, lyricist and musician, and broadcaster who is best known for his humorous songs and frequent television appearances. His output includes collaborations with Andrew ...

('' Mine Host ''), and

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('' Kaspar Hauser '' and '' Watching over You ''). Boyle has written for emerging artists at the start of their careers – the pianist James Willshire has premièred several of his works and recorded much of Boyle’s piano music on a critically acclaimed CD. He has also written several pieces for the young clarinettist Fraser Langton including the solo piece, '' Burble '', which was nominated for a British Composer Award in 2012. He has also written four operas for children, and in 1998 the

National Youth Orchestra of Scotland The National Youth Orchestras of Scotland (NYOS) caters for students aged between 8 and 25, through orchestras, jazz bands, training ensembles and outreach programmes. In addition to organising residential training courses, rehearsals and nati ...

’s tour programme included '' Capriccio '', which was performed at venues including the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam and the London Proms. In 2006 Boyle won a Creative Scotland Award to enable him to write an opera with a libretto by the Scottish writer and poet

on the subject of the nineteenth century feral child,

Kaspar Hauser Kaspar Hauser (30 April 1812 – 17 December 1833) was a German youth who claimed to have grown up in the total isolation of a darkened cell. Hauser's claims, and his subsequent death from a stab wound to his left breast, sparked much debate an ...

. The opera ('' Kaspar Hauser, Child of Europe '') was premiered at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland to critical acclaim in March 2010 and, later that year, won for Boyle a British Composer Award in the Stage category at the annual BASCA (British Association of Songwriters Composer and Authors) ceremony in London. The citation of the judging panel read “A very accomplished score: a powerful and disturbing story told with theatrical flair, dramatic pacing and excellent characterisation. The music flows in an uninhibited and unselfconscious stream”. In April 2012 a second production in association with the Hochschule fur Musik Nurnberg received performances in Germany and Scotland.

Teaching

Boyle has held various teaching posts in England and Scotland. From 1979 to 1988 he was the Director of Music at

Walhampton School Walhampton School is a coeducational independent preparatory school situated in the hamlet of Walhampton, near Lymington, England. It is the result of the 1997 merger between Hordle House School, situated in Milford on Sea, and Walhampton School, ...

, Lymington, and from 1988 to 2000, he was the Director of Music at Malvern College in Worcestershire. Since 2000, he has been a tutor at the

and in 2013 he was made a Professor of Composition there.

Film

Boyle has scored several television documentaries and has also worked with the director

Murray Grigor William Alexander Murray Grigor (born 1939) is a Scottish film-maker, writer, artist, exhibition curator and amateur architect who has served as director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival. He has made over 50 films with a focus on a ...

writing the music for both '' Ever To Excel '', which was made in 2012 to mark 600 years of St Andrews University, with a narration by Sean Connery, and '' Beatus, The Spanish Apocalypse '', premiered in New York in 2014, which explores the corpus of illuminated and illustrated medieval manuscripts based on the 8th century apocalyptic commentary by the monk, Saint Beatus of Liebana.

Selected works

Orchestral

* ''Winter Music'' (1986) * ''Concerto for Marimba & Orchestra'' (1992) * ''Capriccio'' (1995) * ''Auld Nick’s Dance Tunes Vol. 6'' (2001) flute & string orchestra * ''Sorella'' (2008) concerto for oboe & orchestra * ''That Blessed Wood'' (2012) concerto for bassoon & orchestra

Chamber

* ''Cinderella'' (1990) narrator, wind quintet & piano * ''4 Dance Preludes'' (1991) for viola and piano * ''Giochi di Sospiri'' (1992) brass quintet * ''Four Ways to Play Reels'' (1997) wind quintet * ''Lament'' (1999) violin & piano * ''Phaethon’s Dancing Lesson'' (2002) piano trio * ''Night’s Music'' (2004) ensemble * ''Behemoths'' (2006) wind ensemble * ''3 Islay Sketches'' (2006) for violin and viola * ''Tallis’ Light'' (2011) brass quintet & organ * ''Dramatis Personae'' (2012) clarinet & piano * ''Di Tre Re e io'' (2015) clarinet, viola & piano

Brass Band

* ''Muckle Flugga'' (2013)

Opera

* ''Augustine'' (1975) children’s opera * ''The Ghost of Hamish Prong'' (2000) children’s opera * ''Kaspar Hauser, the Child of Europe'' (2007)

Vocal/choral

* ''Vigils'' (1971) soprano, clarinet & piano * ''Passion Canticles'' (1981) SATB & organ * ''Two Love Lyrics'' (1984) counter-tenor & lute * ''Ceremony after a Fire-raid'' (2004) soprano & trumpet * ''A Handful of Leaves'' (2008) mezzo-soprano, flute & piano * ''His Name is Time'' (2011) SATB & cello * ''Watching Over You'' (2014) mezzo-soprano & small ensemble

Solo Instrumental

* ''Toccata'' (1976) organ * ''Sonata'' (1991) piano * ''Reeling'' (2001) piano * ''Lullabies for Daft Jamie'' (2003) guitar * ''Touch'' (2008) flute * ''Such Sweet Sorrow'' (2009) viola * ''Burble'' (2011) clarinet * ''“5”'' (2013) piano

Sources

* * * *

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boyle, Rory Scottish composers Living people 1951 births