Patric Standford

I was born in 1939 in Yorkshire, went to a Quaker school and after ‘national service’ in the RAF (with 617 Squadron in Lincolnshire!) attended the Guildhall School of Music in London. I was principally a composition student with two impressive tutors - Edmund Rubbra, one of the great English symphonists, and Raymond Jones, a leading arranger of London’s commercial music world in the 1960s. I played the violin and viola in the orchestras and was also a conducting student with Lawrence Leonard and Norman del Mar. In 1964 I was awarded the coveted Mendelssohn Scholarship which financed studies abroad. I lived in Venice for a year, studying with the Italian master Malipiero and then to Witold Lutosławski in Poland. After gaining a Masters degree at London University, I became involved in commercial music recording, writing and arranging for films, television and West End shows. I created an album for a jazz group called Continuum, and was for a time a 'ghost writer' for Rod McKuen's classical American recordings.

During the 1970s I succeeded in establishing myself as a serious concert composer – a difficult task driven in no small way by having the responsibility of a wife and three small children. A series of substantial compositions gained notable international awards, including two of the five symphonies I have produced so far, and a huge Easter oratorio, Christus Requiem, which received wide critical acclaim after its premier performance in St. Paul's cathedral and was awarded the Yugoslavian Government's 'Arts Solidarity Award' after its performance in Skopje – an event now sadly overshadowed by events in that part of the world.

I travelled a lot, being a regular member of international juries for choral festivals in Hungary annually over ten years, and in France, Estonia and Latin America. I was always involved in teaching. I joined the staff of the London's Guildhall in 1967 and remained there until 1980, when I was appointed Head of Music to Leeds University’s Bretton Hall college in Yorkshire. Serving a variety of organisations over the years has also been a delight - chairman of the Composers' Guild of Great Britain (1977-1980), chairman of the British Music Information Centre (1980-1993) and currently chairman of the Hinrichsen Foundation. There are a couple of CDs that have included my lighter compositions: the Ballet Suite Celestial Fire on ASV (Light Music Discoveries 3) and A Christmas Carol Symphony on Naxos 8.557099.

Full details of my work are on the website: www.impulse-music.co.uk/standford.htm