| Geoffrey Alvarez | |
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Portrait Photograph by Malcolm Crowthers |
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| Born | 1961 London |
| Occupation | Composer conductor writer librettist |
| Nationality | British |
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www.myspace.com/geoffreyalvarez |
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Geoffrey Alvarez is a British/Nicaraguan composer and conductor.
He chairs the annual international composition competition run by The Alvarez Chamber Orchestra.
He studied composition privately with Giles Swayne, then with Paul Patterson at the Royal Academy of Music as a Leverhulme scholar, and later at the University of York with David Blake and Richard Orton, where he obtained a D.Phil.
He is also a writer on music and inventor of Gravesian Analysis.
Some of his papers are published in Gravesiana: The Journal of the Robert Graves Society, whilst he has contributed several articles for Tempo on the work of composers such as Michael Finnissy[1] and Alexander Goehr Arianna (Goehr).[2] Whilst his own work (his setting of Psalm XXIII in Hebrew) was reviewed in the same publication by Mark R. Taylor.[3]
His compositions range from the wind quintet The Travelling Musicians, performed by the Harlequin Wind Quintet in the Purcell Room in 2001 to seven symphonies and numerous operas including a collaboration with poetess Ruth Fainlight commissioned by the Garden Venture of the Royal Opera House: The European Story.[4]
In November 2006, Geoffrey Alvarez returned from Poland as a prize winning finalist and soloist with the Arthur Rubenstein Łódź Philharmonic Orchestra in the Final of the Tansman 6th International Competition of Musical Personalities, Composers Competition, Łódź 2006.
Contents |
Michael Collins, clarinet, Peter Kronheimer, horn, Alvarez Chamber Orchestra,
St Giles, Cripplegate 1979
First staged performance: Royal Academy of Music Opera Department 1984
Nicholas Daniel, Alvarez Chamber Orchestra,
St. John's Smith Square
First Madrigal, BBC. Singers, Maide Vale Studios (1993)
University of York Chamber Orchestra, Roger Montgomery, 1987
Winner of the University of York Chamber Orchestra Commission.
Polyphiloi, Conducted by Malcolm Singer, Purcell Room September 1993
(1) English Country Opera Peckover House (1993)
(2) Northlands Festival, Ackergill Tower (1994)
(3) Chelse Arts Club
(1) The Oxford University Contemporary Music Society, February 15, 1998
(2) The Oxford University Contemporary Music Ensemble,
Oxford Festival of Contemporary Music, May 15, 1998
Lisa Nolan, soprano and Christine Grieg, piano St. Cyprian's Church, NW1 October 7, 2000
A setting of five poems by Robert Graves in consultation with Julia Simonne, Graves’ last Muse.
Patrick Ardagh: Baritone, Alvarez Chamber Orchestra, Julia Simonne: reciter, Timothy Walker: guitar
St. John's Smith Square, 2008
For Luciano Berio
A setting of six poems by Federico García Lorca.
A setting of three poems by Ruben Darío
first public performance The Waltham Singers to be conducted by Andrew Fardell 2010
for string orchestra Alvarez Chamber Orchestra, Polish Embassy in London, 2008
Alvarez Chamber Orchestra, St. John's Smith Square, 2008
Work in Progress:
Complete Catalogue[1]
Most of his works are published by Campion Press Music Publishers
His Tears or Lamentations: Six Sundry Sighs for 10-course lute are available from Lute Society Publications.