Patrick Flynn (composer)

Patrick Flynn (18 May 1936, Birmingham, England — 10 September 2008, Los Angeles, California) was a composer and conductor who was active in the United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia. ^[1]

Flynn was a staff conductor for Opera Australia between 1970 and 1977. He won acclaim as musical director for Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar, and later Joseph And The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. He composed scores for films such as Caddie, Mad Dog Morgan and Sunday Too Far Away, and the rock opera Ned Kelly, about the Australian bushranger.^[1]

He conducted numerous orchestras in the US and was at the time of his death Music Director of the Riverside County (California) Philharmonic and the Saginaw Bay (Michigan) Symphony Orchestra.

His commercial recordings include Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake (published by the Royal New Zealand Ballet), Hair (Spin SEL 933544), three versions of Jesus Christ Superstar (two as conductor and the third as music director: MCA MAPS 6244 & Polydor 513 713 2; & Polydor 521589 2), and two versions of Ned Kelly, for which he composed the music (Hamlyn Group HG001 & David Spicer Productions Demo CD n.f.s.). He arranged and conducted music for a film promoting North Carolina (Grady Jeffreys & Associates, NC: A Special Kind of Splendor, n.l.a.). His arrangements of Minkus' score for Don Quixote (Kitri's Wedding) are heard in a DVD of the American Ballet Theatre's telecast of the ballet for PBS (Kultur). He conducted for Kiri Te Kanawa's film debut in New Zealand (Don't Let It Get You, not commercially available) and for Marjorie Lawrence's last commercial recording, with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra ("Waltzing Matilda," EMI 11463 (side A)).

He made split-second cameo appearances in several of the aforementioned films.^{[citation needed]}

Flynn's music has also been recorded by others, including Suzanne Steele ("Lullaby," from Ned Kelly (Summit Records SCD499 0100) and Geraldine Turner (the same), in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation soundtrack Once in a Blue Moon: A Celebration of Australian Musicals (from the telecast of the same title) (ABC/Phonogram 522 390-2).

There are a considerable number of recorded concert performances, mostly stemming from radio broadcasts, none of which are commercially available.

He was famous for his interpretations of Nutcracker, the absence of any documentation of which is the biggest single loss from his discography/videography.^{[citation needed]}

Notes and references