Famous Royal Academy Of Music Alumni
Voting Rules
People on this list must have gone to Royal Academy of Music and be of some renown.
List of famous alumni from Royal Academy of Music, with photos when available. Prominent graduates from Royal Academy of Music include celebrities, politicians, business people, athletes and more. This list of distinguished Royal Academy of Music alumni is loosely ordered by relevance, so the most recognizable celebrities who attended Royal Academy of Music are at the top of the list. This directory is not just composed of graduates of this school, as some of the famous people on this list didn't necessarily earn a degree from Royal Academy of Music.
This list is made up of a variety of graduates, including Elton John and Annie Lennox.
This list answers the questions “Which famous people went to Royal Academy of Music?” and “Which celebrities are Royal Academy of Music alumni?”- Elton John, born Reginald Kenneth Dwight on March 25, 1947, in Pinner, Middlesex, England, is a musical icon whose career has spanned more than five decades. A prodigious talent, he was playing piano at the age of three and won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music at just eleven years old. His journey to stardom began in earnest in 1967 when he met Bernie Taupin, an aspiring lyricist. Their partnership, which continues today, has created some of the most memorable songs in pop history. John's first major breakthrough came with the 1970 album Elton John, which included the hit single "Your Song." This ballad propelled him into a stratosphere of success that few artists achieve, leading to an illustrious career marked by numerous chart-topping hits, sold-out world tours, and an incomparable influence on the music industry. From "Rocket Man" and "Tiny Dancer" to "Candle in the Wind" and "I'm Still Standing," his discography is filled with timeless classics. John has sold over 300 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling music artists in history. Apart from his music, Elton John is also known for his flamboyant style and activism. He came out as gay in 1988 and has since been a vocal advocate for LGBTQ+ rights. In 1992, he established the Elton John AIDS Foundation, which has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for HIV/AIDS research and prevention. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1998 for his contributions to music and charitable services. Throughout his career, John has received countless awards and accolades, including multiple Grammys, an Academy Award, and a Tony Award, solidifying his status as a true legend in the entertainment world.
- Age: 77
- Birthplace: Pinner, Greater London, England, UK
- Dame Evelyn Elizabeth Ann Glennie, (born 19 July 1965) is a Scottish virtuoso multi-percussionist, performing internationally with a wide variety of orchestras and contemporary musicians. She was selected as one of the two laureates for the Polar Music Prize of 2015.
- Age: 59
- Birthplace: Scotland, Aberdeenshire
- Arthur Fiedler (December 17, 1894 – July 10, 1979) was a long-time conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, a symphony orchestra that specializes in popular and light classical music. With a combination of musicianship and showmanship, he made the Boston Pops one of the best-known orchestras in the United States. Fiedler was sometimes criticized for over-popularizing music, particularly when adapting popular songs or edited portions of the classical repertoire, but he kept performances informal and sometimes self-mocking to attract a bigger audience.
- Age: Dec. at 84 (1894-1979)
- Birthplace: Boston, USA, Massachusetts
- Dee Palmer, formerly David Palmer (London, 2 July 1937), is an English composer, arranger, and keyboardist best known for having been a member of the progressive rock group Jethro Tull from 1972 to 1980.
- Age: 87
- Birthplace: England, London
- Edward George Power Biggs (March 29, 1906 – March 10, 1977) was a British-born American concert organist and recording artist.
- Age: Dec. at 70 (1906-1977)
- Birthplace: Westcliff-on-Sea, United Kingdom
- Sir Karl William Pamp Jenkins (born 17 February 1944) is a Welsh musician and composer. His best known works include the song "Adiemus" and the Adiemus album series; Palladio; The Armed Man; and his Requiem. Jenkins was educated in music at Cardiff University and the Royal Academy of Music, where he is a fellow and an associate. He was a member of the jazz-rock band Soft Machine. Jenkins has composed music for advertisement campaigns and has won the industry prize twice.
- Age: 80
- Birthplace: Penclawdd, United Kingdom
- Annie Lennox, a name that resonates with the rhythm of pop and soul music, was born on December 25, 1954, in Aberdeen, Scotland. From her early years, she was immersed in music, studying at the Royal Academy of Music in London from 1971 to 1973. However, it was not classical music but the vibrant world of pop where Lennox found her true calling. She began her illustrious career as the lead singer of The Tourists, a British pop band in the late 70s. Despite their moderate success, it was the formation of Eurythmics with fellow band member Dave Stewart in 1980 that propelled Lennox into the international spotlight. As a part of Eurythmics, Lennox's distinctive voice and androgynous image became popular symbols of the 1980s music scene. The duo released numerous hits, such as "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" and "Here Comes the Rain Again", that topped charts worldwide. Their eclectic style of music, blending elements of pop, new wave, and soul, was lauded by critics and fans alike. After a decade of success, Eurythmics disbanded in 1990, marking the beginning of Lennox's solo career. Venturing out as a solo artist, Lennox continued to enchant audiences with her unique blend of musical styles. Her debut album, Diva, released in 1992, was a commercial success and established her as a leading figure in pop music. Her subsequent albums, including Medusa and Songs of Mass Destruction, further cemented her reputation and garnered her numerous accolades, including eight Brit Awards, four Grammys, and an Academy Award. Beyond her musical accomplishments, Lennox is also known for her philanthropic work, particularly in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
- Age: 69
- Birthplace: Aberdeen, Scotland
- Vanraj Bhatia (born 31 May 1927) is an Indian music composer, who is best known for providing music for most of Shyam Benegal's films, and for his private albums with Music Today. Although he gave good music to many art movies, he stayed away from mainstream commercial movies, barring exceptions like Amitabh Bachchan starrer Ajooba, therefore, his success was limited.During the 1970s and 1980s he worked with many art film makers in India. In the 1990s he composed the music of Vijay Singh's international film Jaya Ganga (1996). He won the National Film Award for Best Music Direction for Tamas in 1988, and was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1989. Padmashree for 2012 has been conferred upon him in field of Art – Music.
- Age: 97
- Birthplace: Mumbai, India
- A prolific composer, Michael Nyman has created unique soundtracks for such features as "The Draughtsman's Contract" (1982), "The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover" (1991) and Jane Campion's "The Piano" (1993). The London-born Nyman studied at the Royal Academy of Music and King's College in the early 1960s. He worked variously as a music critic, lecturer, writer and performer, gradually receiving small composing commissions. In 1977, he formed his own permanent performing ensemble, The Michael Nyman Band. He has composed for a wide range of international media and artists.
- Age: 80
- Birthplace: London, England, UK
- Myleene Angela Klass (born 6 April 1978) is a British singer, pianist, and model. She was a member of the pop group Hear'Say, which released two studio albums and four singles, the first two of which reached number one in the UK singles chart. Klass independently released two solo classical crossover albums in 2003 and 2007. More recently, Klass has been a television and radio presenter; she has hosted television shows including Popstar to Operastar (2010–2011) and BBQ Champ (2015) on ITV and The One Show (2007) on BBC One. She was briefly a regular panellist on the ITV lunchtime chat show Loose Women in 2014. In April 2012 her net worth was estimated at £11 million.Mylene has been featured in many ”Littlewoods” TV commercials.
- Age: 46
- Birthplace: Norfolk, England, UK
- Sir Simon Denis Rattle (born 19 January 1955) is a British conductor. He rose to international prominence during the 1980s and 1990s, while Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (1980–98). Rattle was principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic from 2002 to 2018. It was announced in March 2015 that Rattle would become Music Director of the London Symphony Orchestra from September 2017. As a passionate supporter of music education, Rattle is also the patron of Birmingham Schools' Symphony Orchestra, arranged during his tenure with CBSO in mid 1990s. The Youth Orchestra is now under the auspices of charitable business Services for Education.Rattle received the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music in 2001 at the Classic Brit Awards.
- Age: 69
- Birthplace: Liverpool, England
- Rebecca Clarke (27 August 1886 – 13 October 1979) was an English classical composer and violist best known for her chamber music featuring the viola. She was born in Harrow and studied at the Royal Academy of Music and Royal College of Music in London, later becoming one of the first female professional orchestral players. Stranded in the United States at the outbreak of World War II, she settled permanently in New York City and married composer and pianist James Friskin in 1944. Clarke died at her home in New York at the age of 93. Although Clarke's output was not large, her work was recognised for its compositional skill and artistic power. Some of her works have yet to be published (and many were only recently published); those that were published in her lifetime were largely forgotten after she stopped composing. Scholarship and interest in her compositions revived in 1976. The Rebecca Clarke Society was established in 2000 to promote the study and performance of her music.
- Age: Dec. at 93 (1886-1979)
- Birthplace: London Borough of Harrow, London, United Kingdom
- Richard Sidney Hickox (5 March 1948 – 23 November 2008) was an English conductor of choral, orchestral and operatic music.
- Age: Dec. at 60 (1948-2008)
- Birthplace: Stokenchurch, United Kingdom
- Una Winifred Atwell (27 February or 27 April 1910 or 1914 – 28 February 1983) was a Trinidadian pianist who enjoyed great popularity in Britain and Australia from the 1950s with a series of boogie-woogie and ragtime hits, selling over 20 million records. She was the first black person to have a number-one hit in the UK Singles Chart and is still the only female instrumentalist to do so.
- Age: Dec. at 69 (1914-1983)
- Birthplace: Tunapuna, Trinidad and Tobago
- Nicholas Christian Hopkins (24 February 1944 – 6 September 1994) was an English pianist and organist. Hopkins recorded and performed on many notable British and American pop and rock music releases from the 1960s through the 1990s including many songs by The Rolling Stones, The Kinks and The Who.
- Age: Dec. at 50 (1944-1994)
- Birthplace: London, United Kingdom
- Trevor Alfred Charles Jones (born 23 March 1949) is a South African composer of film and television scores. Having spent much of his career in the United Kingdom, Jones has worked on numerous well-known and acclaimed films including Excalibur, Runaway Train, Labyrinth, Mississippi Burning, The Last of the Mohicans, and In the Name of the Father; collaborating with filmmakers like John Boorman, Andrei Konchalovsky, Jim Henson, and Michael Mann. Although not especially well known outside the film world, he has composed for numerous films and his music has been critically acclaimed for both its depth and emotion, and he has been nominated for two Golden Globe Awards and three BAFTA Awards for Best Film Music.
- Age: 75
- Birthplace: Cape Town, South Africa
Lesley Garrett
Musician, Singer-songwriter, SingerLesley Garrett, CBE (born 10 April 1955) is an English soprano singer, musician, broadcaster and media personality. She is noted for being at home in opera and "crossover music".- Age: 69
- Birthplace: Thorne, South Yorkshire, England
Oksana Petrovna Grigorieva (Russian: Оксана Григорьева; born 23 February 1970) is a Russian singer-songwriter and pianist. She was born in Saransk, Mordovia, USSR, and raised in Ukraine and Russia. She studied music in Moscow and completed conservatoire studies in Kazan, before moving to London. After studying music at the Royal Academy of Music, she moved to the United States, with periods spent living in New York City and Los Angeles, California. She taught music in the U.S., and patented a technique of teaching musical notation to children. Grigorieva gained attention as a songwriter in 2006, after a song that she wrote, "Un día llegará", became popular on the Josh Groban album Awake. In 2009, Grigorieva's music album Beautiful Heartache was released; the actor and director Mel Gibson, with whom she was romantically involved and had a child, served as executive producer. The following year, the couple had a widely publicized falling-out that eventually involved highly public legal proceedings and acrimony.- Age: 54
- Birthplace: Saransk, Russia
- Eric Francis Harrison Coates (27 August 1886 – 21 December 1957) was an English composer of light music and, early in his career, a leading violist. Coates was born into a musical family but, despite his wishes and obvious talent, his parents only reluctantly allowed him to pursue a musical career. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music under Frederick Corder (composition) and Lionel Tertis (viola), and played in string quartets and theatre pit bands, before joining symphony orchestras conducted by Thomas Beecham and Henry Wood. Coates's experience as a player added to the rigorous training he had received at the academy and contributed to his skill as a composer. While still working as a violist, Coates composed songs and other light musical works. In 1919 he gave up the viola permanently and from then until his death he made his living as a composer and occasional conductor. His prolific output includes the London Suite (1932), of which the well-known "Knightsbridge March" is the concluding section; the waltz "By the Sleepy Lagoon" (1930); and "The Dam Busters March" (1954). His early compositions were influenced by the music of Arthur Sullivan and Edward German, but Coates's style evolved in step with changes in musical taste, and his later works incorporate elements derived from jazz and dance-band music. His output consists almost wholly of orchestral music and songs. With the exception of one unsuccessful short ballet, he never wrote for the theatre, and only occasionally for the cinema. Coates died in Chichester, England at the age of 72.
- Age: Dec. at 71 (1886-1957)
- Birthplace: Hucknall, United Kingdom
- Dame Felicity Ann Emwhyla Lott, (born 8 May 1947) is an English soprano.
- Age: 77
- Birthplace: England, Cheltenham
- Charles H. Steggall (3 June 1826 in London – 7 June 1905 in London) was an English hymnodist and composer.
- Age: Dec. at 79 (1826-1905)
- Birthplace: London, United Kingdom
- Stephen Russell "Steve" Race OBE (1 April 1921 – 22 June 2009) was a British composer, pianist and radio and television presenter.
- Age: Dec. at 88 (1921-2009)
- Birthplace: Lincoln, England
- David Eric Robertson (born July 19, 1958) is an American conductor. He is currently chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and was formerly music director of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra until 2018.
- Age: 66
- Birthplace: Santa Monica, California
- Raymond Stanley Noble (17 December 1903 – 3 April 1978) was an English bandleader, composer, arranger, radio comedian, and actor. Noble wrote both lyrics and music for many popular songs during the British dance band era, known as the "Golden Age of British music", notably for his longtime friend and associate Al Bowlly, including "Love Is the Sweetest Thing", "Cherokee", "The Touch of Your Lips", "I Hadn't Anyone Till You", and his signature tune, "The Very Thought of You". Noble also played a radio comedian opposite American ventriloquist Edgar Bergen's stage act of Mortimer Snerd and Charlie McCarthy, and American comedy duo Burns and Allen, later transferring these roles from radio to TV and popular films.
- Age: Dec. at 74 (1903-1978)
- Birthplace: Brighton, England
Alexander Mackenzie
Sir Alexander Campbell Mackenzie KCVO (22 August 1847 – 28 April 1935) was a Scottish composer, conductor and teacher best known for his oratorios, violin and piano pieces, Scottish folk music and works for the stage. Mackenzie was a member of a musical family and was sent for his musical education to Germany. He had many successes as a composer, producing over 90 compositions, but from 1888 to 1924, he devoted a great part of his energies to running the Royal Academy of Music. Together with Hubert Parry and Charles Villiers Stanford, he was regarded as one of the fathers of the British musical renaissance in the late nineteenth century.- Age: Dec. at 87 (1847-1935)
- Birthplace: Edinburgh, United Kingdom
- Andrew Manze (born 14 January 1965) is a British conductor and violinist. Born in Beckenham, United Kingdom, Manze read Classics at Cambridge University. Manze studied violin and worked with Ton Koopman (his director in the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra) and Simon Standage (his teacher in the Royal Academy of Music). He began his musical career as a specialist in Early Music, and has recorded commercially as a soloist for such labels as Harmonia Mundi. He became associate director of The Academy of Ancient Music in 1996. From 2003 to 2007, he was artistic director of The English Concert, with whom he recorded commercially for Harmonia Mundi. He has also conducted commercial recordings on labels such as Onyx and Pentatone. Manze was associate guest conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (BBC SSO) from September 2010 to August 2014, and recorded with the BBC SSO for Hyperion.Outside of the UK, from 2006 to 2014, Manze was principal conductor and artistic director of the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra. He made a number of recordings with them, including Beethoven's Symphony No 3 (Harmonia Mundi), Stenhammar Piano Concerti (Hyperion), and a cycle of the Brahms symphonies (CPO). In September 2014, he became principal conductor of the NDR Radiophilharmonie. In March 2017, the orchestra announced the extension of Manze's contract through to 2021. In February 2019, the orchestra announced a further extension of Manze's contract to 2023.Manze has been a fellow of the Royal Academy of Music and a Visiting Professor at the Oslo Academy. He has contributed to new editions of sonatas and concertos by Mozart and Bach published by Bärenreiter and Breitkopf and Härtel. He also teaches, edits and writes about music, as well as broadcasting regularly on radio and television. In 2011, Manze received the Rolf Schock Prize.
- Age: 59
- Birthplace: Beckenham, United Kingdom
- Katherine Maria Jenkins (born 29 June 1980) is a Welsh mezzo-soprano singer and songwriter. She is a classical-crossover singer who performs across a spectrum of operatic arias, popular songs, musical theatre and hymns.After winning singing competitions in her youth, Jenkins studied at the Royal Academy of Music, modelled and taught voice. She came to wide public attention in 2003 when she sang at Westminster Cathedral in honour of Pope John Paul II's silver jubilee. Since 2004, she has released numerous albums that have performed well on British and foreign charts. In both 2005 and 2006, her albums received Classic Brit Awards as Album of the Year. She has also been seen widely in concert, including performing for British troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. She has also sung at sporting events, on television shows and in support of many charities. In 2012, she competed on the U.S. television show Dancing with the Stars, finishing in second place, behind NFL Super Bowl champion Donald Driver.
- Age: 44
- Birthplace: Neath, United Kingdom
- Edward McGuire is a Scottish composer. He studied composition with James Iliff at the Royal Academy of Music in London from 1966 to 1970 and then with Ingvar Lidholm in Stockholm in 1971. His opera "Cullercoats Tommy", with a libretto by Michael Wilcox was premiered by Northern Sinfonia and Northern Stage in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1993 He received a British Composers' Award in 2003. In 2004 he received a Creative Scotland Award which allowed him to create the work Defying Fate. He was commissioned to produce the finale for the 2006 St Magnus Festival, Ring of Strings. McGuire plays the flute in the folk group the Whistlebinkies. In January 2006 he travelled to Hong Kong with the group to play a concert with the Hong Kong Chamber Orchestra. The CD of his music, Eddie McGuire: Music for Flute, Guitar and Piano, on the Delphian Records label was Editor's Choice in Gramophone magazine in 2006.
- Age: 76
- Birthplace: Glasgow, United Kingdom
- Sir John Barbirolli, CH (2 December 1899 – 29 July 1970), né Giovanni Battista Barbirolli, was a British conductor and cellist. He is remembered above all as conductor of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, which he helped save from dissolution in 1943 and conducted for the rest of his life. Earlier in his career he was Arturo Toscanini's successor as music director of the New York Philharmonic, serving from 1936 to 1943. He was also chief conductor of the Houston Symphony from 1961 to 1967, and was a guest conductor of many other orchestras, including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia, the Berlin Philharmonic and the Vienna Philharmonic, with all of which he made recordings. Born in London of Italian and French parentage, Barbirolli grew up in a family of professional musicians. After starting out as a cellist, he was given the chance to conduct, from 1926 with the British National Opera Company, and then with Covent Garden's touring company. On taking up the conductorship of the Hallé he had less opportunity to work in the opera house, but in the 1950s he conducted productions of works by Verdi, Wagner, Gluck, and Puccini at Covent Garden with such success that he was invited to become the company's permanent musical director, an invitation he declined. Late in his career he made several recordings of operas, of which his 1967 set of Puccini's Madama Butterfly for EMI is probably the best known. Both in the concert hall and on record, Barbirolli was particularly associated with the music of English composers such as Elgar, Delius and Vaughan Williams. His interpretations of other late romantic composers, such as Mahler and Sibelius, as well as of earlier classical composers, including Schubert, are also still admired.
- Age: Dec. at 70 (1899-1970)
- Birthplace: United Kingdom
- Sami Yusuf is a British singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, composer, record producer, and humanitarian, born in Iran. Yusuf gained international attention with the release of his debut album, Al-Mu`allim, in 2003. Now with over 34 million albums sold, he performs at venues around the world. The BBC, CNN, ARTE, FRANCE 24, Reuters, Time, Rolling Stone, and Music Week are among the media outlets that have covered him and his work. His seventh studio album, Barakah, was released in 2016.In recognition of his humanitarian work, in 2014 Yusuf was appointed United Nations Global Ambassador for the World Food Programme.
- Age: 44
- Birthplace: Tehran, Iran
- Craig Armstrong, (born 29 April 1959) is a Scottish composer of modern orchestral music, electronica and film scores. He graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in 1981, and has since written music for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the London Sinfonietta. Armstrong's score for William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet earned him a BAFTA for Achievement in Film Music and an Ivor Novello. His composition for Baz Luhrmann's musical Moulin Rouge! earned him the 2001 American Film Institute's composer of the Year award, a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score and a BAFTA. Armstrong was awarded a Grammy Award for Best Original Score in 2004 for the biopic Ray. His other feature film scoring credits include Love Actually, Oliver Stone's World Trade Center, Elizabeth: The Golden Age and The Incredible Hulk.
- Age: 65
- Birthplace: Glasgow, Scotland, UK
- John Pierre Herman Joubert ( joo-BAIR; 20 March 1927 – 7 January 2019) was a British composer of South African descent, particularly of choral works. He lived in Moseley, a suburb of Birmingham, England, for over 50 years. A music academic at the universities of Hull and Birmingham for 36 years, Joubert took early retirement in 1986 to concentrate on composing and remained active into his eighties. Though perhaps best known for his choral music, particularly the carols Torches and There is No Rose of Such Virtue and the anthem O Lorde, the Maker of Al Thing, Joubert composed over 160 works including three symphonies, four concertos and seven operas.
- Age: 97
- Birthplace: Cape Town, South Africa
- Sir Harrison Paul Birtwistle, (born 15 July 1934) is a British composer.
- Age: 90
- Birthplace: Accrington, United Kingdom
- Aled Jones, (born 29 December 1970) is a Welsh singer and radio and television presenter. As a teenage chorister, he reached widespread fame during the mid-1980s. Since then he has become well known for his television work with the BBC and ITV, as well as his radio work (for BBC Radio Wales and Classic FM). In September 2012, Jones joined ITV Breakfast where he presented Daybreak (2012–2014), alongside Lorraine Kelly and Kate Garraway.For the BBC, he has presented Cash in the Attic (2010–2012), Escape to the Country (2010–2013) and Going Back Giving Back (2016–present).
- Age: 53
- Birthplace: Bangor, United Kingdom
- Dame Julia Myra Hess, (25 February 1890 – 25 November 1965) was an English pianist, best known for her performances of the works of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Schumann.
- Age: Dec. at 75 (1890-1965)
- Birthplace: London, United Kingdom
- Prolific English composer whose film work began in documentaries in 1936. Alwyn went on to score over 100 films including the Carol Reed classics "Odd Man Out" (1947) and "The Fallen Idol" (1948). He was also a noted painter and author.
- Age: Dec. at 79 (1905-1985)
- Birthplace: Northampton, Northamptonshire, England, UK
- John Nicholas Maw (5 November 1935 – 19 May 2009) was a British composer.
- Age: Dec. at 73 (1935-2009)
- Birthplace: Grantham, United Kingdom
- David Ian "Joe" Jackson (born 11 August 1954) is an English musician and singer-songwriter. Having spent years of studying music and playing clubs, Jackson scored a hit with his first release, "Is She Really Going Out with Him?", in 1979. This was followed by a number of new wave singles before he moved to more jazz-inflected pop music and had a Top 10 hit in 1982 with "Steppin' Out". He is associated with the 1980s Second British Invasion of the US. He has also composed classical music. He has recorded 19 studio albums and received 5 Grammy Award nominations.
- Age: 70
- Birthplace: Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, UK
Patrick Nunn
Educator, ComposerPatrick Nunn (born 21 July 1969 in Tunbridge Wells, England), is a British composer and educator.- Age: 55
- Birthplace: United Kingdom
David Sanger
OrganistDavid John Sanger (17 April 1947 – 28 May 2010) was a concert organist, professor and president of the Royal College of Organists.- Age: Dec. at 63 (1947-2010)
- Deborah Mollison (born 29 May 1958) is a British composer and songwriter, who works in both the United Kingdom and the United States.She studied composition, piano and flute at the Royal Academy of Music where she won the Else Cross Prize for pianoforte. She then moved to UCLA and to Middlesex University where she received her PhD in music.Deborah Mollison is best known for her scores for films and television programmes, but she has a greater diversity of style: songs, jazz, rock and orchestral works. She has composed for commissions from the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Britten Sinfonia.She sees the role of a composer in society as a commentator. Her ability to empathise with her subjects brings great emotional depth to her work. For example, "Global Nation" celebrates a multi-cultural world set into England's "green and pleasant land"; "Ocean Witness" highlights the suffering of whales and dolphins at the hands of Man. Her creativity allows her to combine her skills of orchestration with those of the MIDI studio programmer/musician. She regularly conducts her own work and has enjoyed conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC Concert Orchestra and the Irish Film Orchestra.
- Age: 66
- Birthplace: England
- Douglas Boyd (born 1959, Glasgow, Scotland) is a British oboist and conductor. He studied oboe at the Royal Academy of Music, London, as a pupil of Janet Craxton. He later was a student with Maurice Bourgue in Paris. In 1984 he won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, which led to his New York City recital debut at Carnegie Hall. Boyd was one of the founding members of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe (COE), and served as its principal oboist from 1981 to 2002. During his time with the COE, he developed an interest in conducting, and counted as his first conducting mentors Claudio Abbado and Nikolaus Harnoncourt. He also had guidance from Paavo Berglund and Sir Colin Davis. In 2006, Boyd ceased performing on the oboe to focus full-time on his conducting career.In 2001, Boyd became music director of the Manchester Camerata, his first major conducting post. He conducted several recordings with the Manchester Camerata for the Avie label, including music of Beethoven, Mozart and Mahler. Boyd concluded his Manchester tenure after the 2010–2011 season. Boyd has also served as principal guest conductor of the City of London Sinfonia. In November 2012, Boyd was named artistic director of Garsington Opera, with immediate effect.Outside of the UK, in April 2008, the Orchester Musikkollegium Winterthur announced the appointment of Boyd as its principal conductor, as of the 2009–2010 season. Boyd has since extended his Winterthur contract through the 2015–2016 season, and concluded his Winterthur tenure after the 2015–2016 season. Boyd has conducted the Winterthur orchestra in commercial recordings of music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Felix Mendelssohn and Josef Rheinberger. On 1 July 2015, Boyd became the new music director of the Orchestre de chambre de Paris.In the US, Boyd's first conducting appearance was with the Gardner Chamber Orchestra in 2000. In 2002, Boyd became co-artistic director of the orchestra, along with Paula Robison. In 2004, he became one of the first Artistic Partners with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. In 2006, he extended his contract with the SPCO into the 2009–2010 season. He concluded his SPCO Artistic Partnership in September 2009. He first conducted the Colorado Symphony Orchestra in December 2006, and was named their principal guest conductor in January 2008, for a contract of 3 years with 2 weeks of guest appearances per season.Boyd and his wife Sally Pendlebury, a cellist, have three children, Iona, Sebastian and Sam. The family reside in London.
- Age: 65
- Birthplace: Glasgow, United Kingdom
- Kerry Churchill Minnear (born 2 January 1948, in Shaftesbury, Dorset, England) is a classically trained multi-instrumentalist who played in the progressive rock band Gentle Giant during the 1970s. Minnear received a classical music education at the Royal Academy of Music, with a degree in composition. Contributing to the band's success as one of the composers and arrangers, Kerry, unlike most of the keyboardists of his time, chose to create natural sounds from his keyboards. Like the other members of Gentle Giant, he is quite adept on a number of instruments including the cello, drums, guitar, bass, idiophones, recorder, vibraphone, theremin, and timpani. Minnear also composed the soundtrack to the 1996 video game Azrael's Tear, along with bandmate Ray Shulman.He now lives in Solihull (West Midlands) with his wife Lesley and has three children, Sally, Sam and Susie. Still part of the Gentle Giant franchise, he also composes for film and television. In the years since the disbanding of Gentle Giant, Minnear has been a member of The Reapers during the 1980s. He has also been a teacher and, being a Christian, a church musician He and his wife Lesley own Alucard Music, which releases Gentle Giant CDs and DVDs. His son Sam Minnear is a founding member of alternative pop band Misty's Big Adventure.
- Age: 76
- Birthplace: Salisbury, United Kingdom
- Zoe Rahman (born 20 January 1971) is an English jazz composer and pianist.
- Age: 53
- Birthplace: Chichester, United Kingdom
Sir Arthur Sullivan
ComposerSir Arthur Seymour Sullivan MVO (13 May 1842 – 22 November 1900) was an English composer. He is best known for 14 operatic collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado. His works include 24 operas, 11 major orchestral works, ten choral works and oratorios, two ballets, incidental music to several plays, and numerous church pieces, songs, and piano and chamber pieces. His hymns and songs include "Onward, Christian Soldiers" and "The Lost Chord". The son of a military bandmaster, Sullivan composed his first anthem at the age of eight and was later a soloist in the boys' choir of the Chapel Royal. In 1856, at 14, he was awarded the first Mendelssohn Scholarship by the Royal Academy of Music, which allowed him to study at the academy and then at the Leipzig Conservatoire in Germany. His graduation piece, incidental music to Shakespeare's The Tempest (1861), was received with acclaim on its first performance in London. Among his early major works were a ballet, L'Île Enchantée (1864), a symphony, a cello concerto (both 1866) and his Overture di Ballo (1870). To supplement the income from his concert works he wrote hymns, parlour ballads and other light pieces, and worked as a church organist and music teacher. In 1866 Sullivan composed a one-act comic opera, Cox and Box, which is still widely performed. He wrote his first opera with W. S. Gilbert, Thespis, in 1871. Four years later, the impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte engaged Gilbert and Sullivan to create a one-act piece, Trial by Jury (1875). Its box-office success led to a series of twelve full-length comic operas by the collaborators. After the extraordinary success of H.M.S. Pinafore (1878) and The Pirates of Penzance (1879), Carte used his profits from the partnership to build the Savoy Theatre in 1881, and their joint works became known as the Savoy operas. Among the best known of the later operas are The Mikado (1885) and The Gondoliers (1889). Gilbert broke from Sullivan and Carte in 1890, after a quarrel over expenses at the Savoy. They reunited in the 1890s for two more operas, but these did not achieve the popularity of their earlier works. Sullivan's infrequent serious pieces during the 1880s included two cantatas, The Martyr of Antioch (1880) and The Golden Legend (1886), his most popular choral work. He also wrote incidental music for West End productions of several Shakespeare plays and held conducting and academic appointments. Sullivan's only grand opera, Ivanhoe, though initially successful in 1891, has rarely been revived. In his last decade Sullivan continued to compose comic operas with various librettists and wrote other major and minor works. He died at the age of 58, regarded as Britain's foremost composer. His comic opera style served as a model for generations of musical theatre composers that followed, and his music is still frequently performed, recorded and pastiched.- Age: Dec. at 58 (1842-1900)
- Birthplace: Lambeth, London, United Kingdom
- Bramwell Tovey, (born 11 July 1953) is a British conductor and composer.
- Age: 71
- Birthplace: Ilford, London, United Kingdom
Henry Wood
ConductorSir Henry Joseph Wood (3 March 1869 – 19 August 1944) was an English conductor best known for his association with London's annual series of promenade concerts, known as the Proms. He conducted them for nearly half a century, introducing hundreds of new works to British audiences. After his death, the concerts were officially renamed in his honour as the "Henry Wood Promenade Concerts", although they continued to be generally referred to as "the Proms". Born in modest circumstances to parents who encouraged his musical talent, Wood started his career as an organist. During his studies at the Royal Academy of Music, he came under the influence of the voice teacher Manuel Garcia and became his accompanist. After similar work for Richard D'Oyly Carte's opera companies on the works of Arthur Sullivan and others, Wood became the conductor of a small operatic touring company. He was soon engaged by the larger Carl Rosa Opera Company. One notable event in his operatic career was conducting the British premiere of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin in 1892. From the mid-1890s until his death, Wood focused on concert conducting. He was engaged by the impresario Robert Newman to conduct a series of promenade concerts at the Queen's Hall, offering a mixture of classical and popular music at low prices. The series was successful, and Wood conducted annual promenade series until his death in 1944. By the 1920s, Wood had steered the repertoire entirely to classical music. When the Queen's Hall was destroyed by bombing in 1941, the Proms moved to the Royal Albert Hall. Wood declined the chief conductorships of the New York Philharmonic and Boston Symphony Orchestras, believing it his duty to serve music in the United Kingdom. In addition to the Proms, he conducted concerts and festivals throughout the country and also trained the student orchestra at the Royal Academy of Music. He had an enormous influence on the musical life of Britain over his long career: he and Newman greatly improved access to classical music, and Wood raised the standard of orchestral playing and nurtured the taste of the public, presenting a vast repertoire of music spanning four centuries.- Age: Dec. at 75 (1869-1944)
- Birthplace: London, United Kingdom
- Rachel Tucker is an actress who appeared in "Informer," "Holby City," and "Chain of Desire."
- Age: 43
- Birthplace: Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
- Gabriela Montero (born May 10, 1970) is a Venezuelan pianist, known in particular for her real-time improvisation of complex musical pieces on themes suggested by her audience and other sources, as well as for performances of standard classical repertoire.
- Age: 54
- Birthplace: Venezuela, Caracas
- Ian David Karslake Watkins (born 30 July 1977) is a Welsh former singer, songwriter, musician, and convicted sex offender. He achieved prominence as a founding member, lead vocalist, and lyricist, of the rock band Lostprophets. In 2013, Watkins was sentenced to 29 years imprisonment for sexual offences; including assault of young children. Lostprophets disbanded in the same year.
- Age: 47
- Birthplace: Merthyr Tydfil, United Kingdom
- Sir John Phillip William Dankworth, CBE (20 September 1927 – 6 February 2010), also known as Johnny Dankworth, was an English jazz composer, saxophonist, clarinetist and writer of film scores. With his wife, jazz singer Dame Cleo Laine, he was a music educator and also her music director.
- Age: Dec. at 82 (1927-2010)
- Birthplace: London, England
- Sir Arnold Edward Trevor Bax (8 November 1883 – 3 October 1953) was an English composer, poet, and author. His prolific output includes songs, choral music, chamber pieces, and solo piano works, but he is best known for his orchestral music. In addition to a series of symphonic poems he wrote seven symphonies and was for a time widely regarded as the leading British symphonist. Bax was born in the London suburb of Streatham to a prosperous family. He was encouraged by his parents to pursue a career in music, and his private income enabled him to follow his own path as a composer without regard for fashion or orthodoxy. Consequently, he came to be regarded in musical circles as an important but isolated figure. While still a student at the Royal Academy of Music Bax became fascinated with Ireland and Celtic culture, which became a strong influence on his early development. In the years before the First World War he lived in Ireland and became a member of Dublin literary circles, writing fiction and verse under the pseudonym Dermot O'Byrne. Later, he developed an affinity with Nordic culture, which for a time superseded his Celtic influences in the years after the First World War. Between 1910 and 1920 Bax wrote a large amount of music, including the symphonic poem Tintagel, his best-known work. During this period he formed a lifelong association with the pianist Harriet Cohen – at first an affair, then a friendship, and always a close professional relationship. In the 1920s he began the series of seven symphonies which form the heart of his orchestral output. In 1942 Bax was appointed Master of the King's Music, but composed little in that capacity. In his last years he found his music regarded as old-fashioned, and after his death it was generally neglected. From the 1960s onwards, mainly through a growing number of commercial recordings, his music was gradually rediscovered, although little of it is heard with any frequency in the concert hall. In more recent years, Bax's music has been (re-)discovered enthusiastically by a new generation via online distribution services such as YouTube.
- Age: Dec. at 69 (1883-1953)
- Birthplace: London, United Kingdom
- Peter Knight (born 27 May 1947) is a folk musician, a former member of British folk rock group Steeleye Span. Born in London, Knight learnt to play the violin and mandolin as a child before going to the Royal Academy of Music from 1960 to 1964. The recordings of the Irish fiddler Michael Coleman inspired him to take part in Irish pub sessions. He teamed up with guitarist and singer Bob Johnson until 1970 when he joined Steeleye Span. The parting was short-lived, as Johnson himself also joined Steeleye Span in 1972.
- Age: 77
- Birthplace: England
Harriet Cohen
PianistHarriet Pearl Alice Cohen CBE (2 December 1895 – 13 November 1967) was a British pianist.- Age: Dec. at 71 (1895-1967)
- Birthplace: London, United Kingdom
Marius Stravinsky
ConductorMarius Stravinsky (born 13 March 1979 in Alma-Ata, Russia) is a British conductor and violinist of Russian descent, and the cousin five times removed of Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. He is also the Founder & Music Director of the St. Petersburg Festival Orchestra.- Age: 45
- Birthplace: Almaty, Kazakhstan
- John Arthur Lanchbery OBE (15 May 1923 - 27 February 2003) was an English-Australian composer and conductor, famous for his ballet arrangements. He served as the Principal Conductor of the Royal Ballet from 1959 to 1972, Principal Conductor of the Australian Ballet from 1972 to 1977, and Director of the American Ballet Theatre from 1978 to 1980. Although he resigned from the position of Director of the Royal Ballet in 1972, he continued to conduct regularly for the Company until 2001.Lanchbery worked with Sir Frederick Ashton, Sir Kenneth MacMillan, Dame Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev in addition to his lifelong friends Peter Stanley Lyons and Kenneth Spring. Lanchbery was widely considered (including by Nureyev) to be the greatest conductor of his time, and to be ‘a conductor and music director of unmatched experience’ who was ‘directly responsible for raising the status and the standards of musical performance'. Maina Gielgud, Artistic Director of Australian Ballet, stated that "He [Lanchbery] is not only the finest conductor for dance of his generation and probably well beyond". One critic wrote that ‘the music was always on its best behaviour’ when Lanchbery was conducting.He was also famous for his re-adaptation of canonical works.
- Age: Dec. at 79 (1923-2003)
- Birthplace: England, London
- Sir John Kenneth Tavener (28 January 1944 – 12 November 2013) was an English composer, known for his extensive output of religious works, including The Protecting Veil, Song for Athene and The Lamb. Tavener first came to prominence with his cantata The Whale, premiered in 1968. Then aged 24, he was described by The Guardian as "the musical discovery of the year", while The Times said he was "among the very best creative talents of his generation." During his career he became one of the best known and popular composers of his generation, most particularly for The Protecting Veil, which as recorded by cellist Steven Isserlis became a bestselling album, and Song for Athene which was sung at the funeral of Princess Diana. The Lamb featured in the soundtrack for Paolo Sorrentino's film The Great Beauty. Tavener was knighted in 2000 for his services to music and won an Ivor Novello Award. He was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by Sarum College in 2001.
- Age: Dec. at 69 (1944-2013)
- Birthplace: Wembley, London, United Kingdom
- Freddy Kempf (born 1977) is a British pianist born in Croydon to a German father and a Japanese mother. He lives in Berlin.
- Age: 47
- Birthplace: Croydon, London, United Kingdom
- Giles Oliver Cairnes Swayne (born Hertfordshire, 30 June 1946) is a British composer.
- Age: 78
- Birthplace: Stevenage, United Kingdom
- Bryan Havell Balkwill (2 July 1922 – 24 February 2007) was an English orchestral conductor. Balkwill was born in London. He started to learn to play the piano at the age of four and was educated at Merchant Taylors' School. From there he won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music. After service in the Second World War in Italy he was appointed as répétiteur for the New London Opera Company in 1947 where he became its assistant conductor. With them he made his debut at the Cambridge Theatre conducting Carl Ebert's production of Rigoletto. Around the same time he was the associate conductor of the International Ballet Company.In 1950 he became répétiteur at Glyndebourne Festival Opera and during the same year was appointed as principal conductor of the London Festival Ballet. He returned to Glyndebourne in 1953 as chorus master and associate conductor. During the 1950s he played a part in creating the Art Council's Opera for All programme and was its musical director from 1953 to 1963. Also during the 1950s he was principal conductor of the Wexford Festival for seven years. He made his debut at the Royal Festival Hall in 1957 conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1959 he was appointed a resident conductor at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and he remained there until 1965, during which time he gave more than 200 performances of 16 operas. He toured with the English Opera Group to the USSR and Portugal where he conducted Albert Herring and A Midsummer Night's Dream. From 1963 to 1967 he succeeded Charles Groves as music director of the Welsh National Opera. He was also the joint musical director of the Sadler's Wells Opera from 1966 to 1969. Here he gave the first performance of Richard Rodney Bennett's opera A Penny for a Song.After this he went freelance, conducting the BBC orchestras, the Orchestre National de France and in Montreal, Edmonton and Vancouver. From 1979 to 1992 he was professor at the School of Music at Indiana University. He retired in 1992 and returned to Britain.During his career he became particularly associated with the performances of Joan Sutherland, including conducting her at Covent Garden in Alcina, La sonnambula and, in her most celebrated role, Lucia di Lammermoor. He also conducted Peter Pears in Peter Grimes, Jon Vickers in Aida and Régine Crespin in Tosca.
- Age: Dec. at 84 (1922-2007)
- Birthplace: London, United Kingdom
- Deft, versatile composer who entered movies at age 20 and quickly established himself as one of the finest talents in the field. Bennett has often contributed to the films of John Schlesinger, scoring "Billy Liar" (1963), "Darling" (1965), "Far From the Madding Crowd" (1967) and "Yanks" (1979). He has worked mostly in TV since the early 1980s. A rare exception was the award-winning comedy "Four Weddings and a Funeral" (1994).
- Age: Dec. at 76 (1936-2012)
- Birthplace: Broadstairs, Kent, England, UK
- Edmundo Ros OBE FRAM (7 December 1910 – 21 October 2011), born Edmund William Ross, was a Trinidadian- Venezuelan musician, vocalist, arranger and bandleader who made his career in Britain. He directed a highly popular Latin American orchestra, had an extensive recording career and owned one of London's leading nightclubs.
- Age: Dec. at 100 (1910-2011)
- Birthplace: Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago
- Jennifer Vyvyan (13 March 1925 – 5 April 1974) was a British classical soprano who had an active international career in operas, concerts, and recitals from 1948 up until her death in 1974. She possessed a beautifully clear, steady voice with considerable flexibility in florid music. She was praised for her subtle phrasing and her dramatic gifts enabled her to create vivid individual portrayals. Although she sang a broad repertoire, she is particularly remembered for her association with the works of Benjamin Britten; notably singing roles created for her in the world premieres of several of his operas with the English Opera Group. On the concert stage, Vyvyan was highly active as an oratorio singer. The warmth and flexibility of her voice made her an outstanding exponent of the music of Purcell, Handel and other baroque composers. She frequently collaborated with the Royal Choral Society, often under conductor Malcolm Sargent, and sang countless performances of Messiah throughout Britain and abroad – not least, with the Berlin Philharmonic.
- Age: Dec. at 49 (1925-1974)
- Birthplace: Broadstairs, England
- Ioana Petcu-Colan is an Irish violinist of Romanian origin, currently living in Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland.
- Age: 46
- Birthplace: Cork, Republic of Ireland
- Sir Clifford Michael Curzon CBE (né Siegenberg; 18 May 1907 – 1 September 1982) was an English classical pianist. Curzon studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and subsequently with Artur Schnabel in Berlin and Wanda Landowska and Nadia Boulanger in Paris. In his early career he was known for his performances of Romantic and virtuoso music, and for championing modern works. Later he concentrated on composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms. He played regularly in continental Europe and North America, making tours in the 1930s and for most of his post-war career. Although signed to a recording company, Decca, for most of his career, Curzon was not at ease in the studio, and vetoed the release of many of his recordings, some of which were published after his death.
- Age: Dec. at 75 (1907-1982)
- Birthplace: England, London
Darrell Fancourt
SingerDarrell Louis Fancourt Leverson (8 March 1886 – 29 August 1953), known as Darrell Fancourt, was an English bass-baritone and actor, known for his performances and recordings of the Savoy operas. After a brief concert career, Fancourt joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, where he starred in more than 10,000 performances over a 33-year period until his death. He regularly played about ten different roles for the company over these years, including the Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance, Dick Deadeye in H.M.S. Pinafore, and the title character in The Mikado, which he played more than 3,000 times. Fancourt was famous for his melodramatic style, creating the controversial Mikado laugh that was later adopted by some of his successors. His performances are preserved in nineteen of the company's recordings made between 1923 and 1950.- Age: Dec. at 67 (1886-1953)
- Max Richter (; German: [ˈʁɪçtɐ]; born 22 March 1966) is a German-born British composer who has been an influential voice in post-minimalist composition and in the meeting of contemporary classical and alternative popular musical styles since the early 2000s. Richter is classically trained, having graduated in composition from the Royal Academy of Music and studied with Luciano Berio in Italy.Richter also composes music for stage, opera, ballet and screen. He has also collaborated with other musicians, as well as with performance, installation and media artists. He has recorded eight solo albums and his music is widely used in cinema.
- Age: 58
- Birthplace: Hamelin, Germany
John Kenny
John Kenny (born 1957) is a British trombonist, actor, composer and multi-faceted performer of contemporary solo repertoire, modern jazz and early music. As a composer, he has received commissions from the London Contemporary Dance Theatre, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, and in 1989 was Strathclyde Composer in Residence to the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. After studying with Harold Nash at the Royal Academy of Music, John Kenny worked as an actor/musician with the Bubble Theatre in London in 1981. He made his debut as a soloist in the Purcell Room in 1982. In 1983 he was a prize winner at the Gaudeamus Foundation's International Competition in the Netherlands, and has since given recitals and broadcasts worldwide, both as a soloist and with ensembles, including Ensemble Modern of Frankfurt and Ensemble Alternance of Paris. He was a founder member of the TNT music theatre in 1984, collaborating with playwright Paul Stebbings to produce shows which have toured over a hundred venues in the UK, Scandinavia, Germany, Russia and Japan. In 1993 he became the first person in modern times to play the Carnyx, Scotland's 2,000-year-old Celtic Boar-headed horn. He now performs and lectures regularly with the instrument. In the same year he was elected as an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music. He is a professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and lecturer at Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart and now lives in Edinburgh with his wife, Irene and his two children, Patrick and Ruairi.- Age: 67
Sydney MacEwan
SingerCanon Sydney Alfred MacEwan (19 October 1908 – 25 September 1991) was a Scottish tenor, who sang traditional Scottish and Irish songs. His name has also been recorded as Alfred Sydney Marley MacEwan.- Age: Dec. at 83 (1908-1991)
- Birthplace: Scotland
John Hullah
John Pyke Hullah, English composer and teacher of music, was born at Worcester. He was a pupil of William Horsley from 1829, and entered the Royal Academy of Music in 1833. He wrote an opera to words by Dickens, The Village Coquettes, produced in 1836; The Barbers of Bassora in 1837, and The Outpost in 1838, the last two at Covent Garden. From 1839, when he went to Paris to investigate various systems of teaching music to large masses of people, he identified himself with Wilhem's system of the fixed "Do," and his adaptation of that system was taught with enormous success from 1840 to 1860. One of his famous pupils was Edmund Hart Turpin. In 1847 a large building in Long Acre, called St Martin's Hall, was built by subscription and presented to Hullah. It was inaugurated in 1850 and burnt to the ground in 1860, a blow from which Hullah was long in recovering. A series of lectures was given at the Royal Institution in 1861, and in 1864 he lectured in Edinburgh, but in the following year was unsuccessful in his application for the Reid professorship.- Age: Dec. at 71 (1812-1884)
- Birthplace: Worcestershire, United Kingdom
- Mike Edwards (31 May 1948 – 3 September 2010), known as Swami Deva Pramada or simply Pramada, was an English cellist and music teacher. He was a member of the Electric Light Orchestra.
- Age: Dec. at 62 (1948-2010)
- Birthplace: London, United Kingdom
Tobias Matthay
Tobias Augustus Matthay (19 February 1858 – 15 December 1945) was an English pianist, teacher, and composer.- Age: Dec. at 87 (1858-1945)
- Birthplace: London, United Kingdom
Nancy Weir
PianistNancy Mary Weir (13 July 1915 – 14 October 2008) was an Australian pianist and teacher.- Age: Dec. at 93 (1915-2008)
- Birthplace: Australia
Edward German
Sir Edward German (17 February 1862 – 11 November 1936) was an English musician and composer of Welsh descent, best remembered for his extensive output of incidental music for the stage and as a successor to Arthur Sullivan in the field of English comic opera. Some of his light operas, especially Merrie England, are still performed. As a youth, German played the violin and led the town orchestra of Whitchurch, Shropshire. He also began to compose music. While performing and teaching violin at the Royal Academy of Music, German began to build a career as a composer in the mid-1880s, writing serious music as well as light opera. In 1888, he became music director of Globe Theatre in London. He provided popular incidental music for many productions at the Globe and other London theatres, including Richard III (1889), Henry VIII (1892) and Nell Gwynn (1900). He also wrote symphonies, orchestral suites, symphonic poems and other works. He also wrote a considerable body of songs, piano music, and symphonic suites and other concert music, of which his Welsh Rhapsody (1904) is perhaps best known. German was engaged to finish The Emerald Isle after the death of Arthur Sullivan in 1900, the success of which led to more comic operas, including Merrie England (1902) and Tom Jones (1907). He also wrote the Just So Song Book in 1903 to Rudyard Kipling's texts and continued to write orchestral music. German wrote little new music of his own after 1912, but he continued to conduct until 1928, the year in which he was knighted.- Age: Dec. at 74 (1862-1936)
- Birthplace: Whitchurch, United Kingdom
Lena Ashwell
ActorLena Margaret Ashwell, OBE (28 September 1872 – 13 March 1957) was a British actress and theatre manager and producer, known as the first to organise large-scale entertainment for troops at the front, which she did during World War I.- Age: Dec. at 84 (1872-1957)
- Birthplace: England
- Sir Clive Daniel Gillinson, CBE (born 7 March 1946) is a British cellist and arts administrator. He is best known for his long tenure as the Managing Director of the London Symphony Orchestra and his current position as Executive and Artistic Director of Carnegie Hall.
- Age: 78
- Birthplace: Bangalore, India
- Xuefei Yang (simplified Chinese: 杨雪霏; traditional Chinese: 楊雪霏; pinyin: Yáng Xuěfēi; born March 15, 1977) is a Chinese classical guitarist.
- Age: 47
- Birthplace: Beijing, China
- James Seymour Brett (born 3 April 1974) is an English composer and conductor.
- Age: 50
- Birthplace: London, United Kingdom
Monica Huggett
Conductor, ViolinistMonica Huggett (born 16 May 1953 in London, England) is a British conductor and leading baroque violinist.- Age: 71
- Birthplace: London, United Kingdom
- Benjamin Grosvenor (born 8 July 1992) is a British classical pianist.
- Age: 32
- Birthplace: Southend-on-Sea, United Kingdom
Hamish Milne
PianistHamish Milne (born 27 April 1939, Salisbury) is a British pianist known for his advocacy of Nikolai Medtner. Milne studied at Bishop Wordsworth's School in Salisbury and then at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he now teaches, and later in Italy under Guido Agosti. In the 1970s, Milne was the first pianist to offer a comprehensive survey of the piano music of Medtner since the composer made his own records in the 78s era.- Age: 85
- Birthplace: Salisbury, United Kingdom
- Jiří Stivín (born 23 November 1942 in Prague) is a Czech flute player and composer.
- Age: 81
- Birthplace: Prague, Czech Republic
David Bedford
David Vickerman Bedford was an English composer and musician. He wrote and played both popular and classical music. He was the brother of the conductor Steuart Bedford and the grandson of the composer, painter and author Herbert Bedford and the composer Liza Lehmann. From 1969 to 1981, Bedford was Composer in Residence at Queen's College, London. From 1968 to 1980, he taught music in a number of London secondary schools. In 1996 he was appointed Composer in Association with the English Sinfonia. In 2001 he was appointed Chairman of the Performing Right Society, having previously been Deputy Chairman.- Age: Dec. at 74 (1937-2011)
- Birthplace: London, United Kingdom
- Bertram Wallis (22 February 1874 – 11 April 1952) was an English actor and singer known for his performances in plays, musical comedies and operettas in the early 20th century, first as leading men and then in character roles. He also later appeared in several film roles.
- Age: Dec. at 78 (1874-1952)
- Birthplace: England, London
- Valerie Tryon, (born 5 September 1934) is a British-born classical pianist. Since 1971 she has resided in Canada, but continues to pursue an international performing and recording career, and spends a part of each year in her native Britain. Among her specialisms is the music of Franz Liszt, of which she has made a number of celebrated recordings. Currently 'Artist-in-Residence' at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Valerie Tryon is active as a concerto soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, accompanist and adjudicator.
- Age: 90
- Birthplace: Portsmouth, United Kingdom
Helen Watts
SingerHelen Watts (7 December 1927 – 7 October 2009) was a Welsh contralto.- Age: Dec. at 81 (1927-2009)
- Birthplace: Milford Haven, United Kingdom
Nikki Iles
Nikki Anne Iles (née Burnham; born 16 May 1963) is a British jazz composer, pianist and educator.- Age: 61
- Birthplace: Dunstable, United Kingdom
- Alan Dudley Bush (22 December 1900 – 31 October 1995) was a British composer, pianist, conductor, teacher and political activist. A committed communist, his uncompromising political beliefs were often reflected in his music. He composed prolifically across a range of genres, but struggled through his lifetime for recognition from the British musical establishment, which largely ignored his works. Bush, from a prosperous middle-class background, enjoyed considerable success as a student at the Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in the early 1920s, and spent much of that decade furthering his compositional and piano-playing skills under distinguished tutors. A two-year period in Berlin in 1929 to 1931, early in the Nazi Party's rise to power, cemented Bush's political convictions and moved him from the mainstream Labour Party to the Communist Party of Great Britain which he joined in 1935. He wrote several large-scale works in the 1930s, and was heavily involved with workers' choirs for whom he composed pageants, choruses and songs. His pro-Soviet stance led to a temporary ban on his music by the BBC in the early years of the Second World War, and his refusal to modify his position in the postwar Cold War era led to a more prolonged semi-ostracism of his music. As a result, the four major operas he wrote between 1950 and 1970 were all premiered in East Germany. In his prewar works, Bush's style retained what commentators have described as an essential Englishness, but was also influenced by the avant-garde European idioms of the inter-war years. During and after the war he began to simplify this style, in line with his Marxism-inspired belief that music should be accessible to the mass of the people. Despite the difficulties he encountered in getting his works performed in the West he continued to compose until well into his eighties. He taught composition at the RAM for more than 50 years, published two books, was the founder and long-time president of the Workers' Music Association, and served as chairman and later vice-president of the Composers' Guild of Great Britain. His contribution to musical life was slowly recognised, in the form of doctorates from two universities and numerous tribute concerts towards the end of his life. Since his death aged 94 in 1995, his musical legacy has been nurtured by the Alan Bush Music Trust, established in 1997.
- Age: Dec. at 94 (1900-1995)
- Birthplace: London, United Kingdom
- Charles Williams (8 May 1893 – 7 September 1978) was a British composer and conductor, contributing music to over 50 films. While his career ran from 1934 through 1968, much of his work came to the big screen as stock music and was therefore uncredited.
- Age: Dec. at 85 (1893-1978)
- Birthplace: London, United Kingdom
Brian Ferneyhough
ComposerBrian John Peter Ferneyhough (; born 16 January 1943) is a British composer, who has resided in California, United States since 1987. Ferneyhough is typically considered to be the central figure of the New Complexity movement. Ferneyhough taught composition at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg and the University of California, San Diego, and currently, Stanford University, and is a regular lecturer in the summer courses at Darmstädter Ferienkurse.- Age: 81
- Birthplace: Coventry, United Kingdom
Herbert Murrill
Herbert Henry John Murrill (11 May 1909 – 25 July 1952) was an English musician, composer, and organist.- Age: Dec. at 43 (1909-1952)
- Birthplace: London, United Kingdom
Jonathan Pitkin
Jonathan Pitkin (born 1978) is a contemporary classical composer. He was born in Dublin but brought up in Edinburgh. He studied at Christ Church, Oxford and at the Royal Academy of Music under Christopher Brown, where he was the recipient of several prizes and awards. His music has been performed and commissioned internationally as well as at major venues across the UK, including the Royal Festival Hall and the Huddersfield and Spitalfields Festivals. Performers have included the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Singers, members of the Philharmonia Orchestra, and conductors Garry Walker, Nicholas Cleobury, Stephen Layton and Martyn Brabbins.In 1998 he attended Karlheinz Stockhausen's inaugural composition course in Kürten, Germany, and in 2000 spent three months at the Paris Conservatoire, where he studied with Guy Reibel as well as following courses in orchestration and electro-acoustic composition. He has also participated in classes and seminars with composers including Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Poul Ruders and Michael Finnissy. In 2002 Pitkin worked as an assistant composer on the RPS Award-winning Sound Inventors initiative, and in 2003 he wrote for St Albans High School as part of the spnm/Making Music scheme Adopt a Composer, in connection with which he appeared on BBC Radio 3’s Music Matters. He now teaches composition and musicianship at the Royal College of Music Junior Department.In 2001 he was awarded the Temple Church Composition Prize for his anthem Hark! a herald voice is calling and was shortlisted by the Society for the Promotion of New Music. Three of his most recent works were broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in 2004, including the orchestral piece Borrowed Time. Two of his choral pieces were published by Oxford University Press in the New Horizons series.Pitkin is currently working towards a DMus in composition at the Royal College of Music, with support from the Arts and Humanities Research Council.- Age: 46
Paul Patterson
Paul Patterson may refer to: Paul Patterson (neuroscientist) (1943–2014), American neuroscientist Paul L. Patterson (1900–1956), American politician Paul Patterson (author) (1909–2008), American western genre author Paul Patterson (footballer) (born 1965), Australian rules footballer Paul Patterson (composer) (born 1947), British composer Paul Patterson (comics), comic book character- Age: 77
- Birthplace: Chesterfield, United Kingdom
Frederick Corder
Frederick Corder (26 January 1852 – 21 August 1932) was an English composer and music teacher.- Age: Dec. at 80 (1852-1932)
- Birthplace: London, United Kingdom
- Howard David Blake (born 28 October 1938) is an English composer, conductor, and pianist whose career has spanned more than 50 years and produced more than 650 works. Blake's most successful work is his soundtrack for Channel 4’s 1982 film The Snowman, which includes the song "Walking in the Air". He is increasingly recognised for his classical works including concertos, oratorios, ballets, operas and many instrumental pieces.
- Age: 86
- Birthplace: London, United Kingdom
- Caryl Brahms, born Doris Caroline Abrahams (8 December 1901 – 5 December 1982), was an English critic, novelist, and journalist specialising in the theatre and ballet. She also wrote film, radio and television scripts. As a student at the Royal Academy of Music in London, Brahms was dissatisfied with her own skill as a pianist, leaving without graduating. She contributed light verse, and later stories for satirical cartoons, to the London paper The Evening Standard in the late 1920s. She recruited a friend, S. J. Simon, to help her with the cartoon stories, and in the 1930s and 40s they collaborated on a series of comic novels, some with a balletic background and others set in various periods of English history. At the same time as her collaboration with Simon, Brahms was a ballet critic, writing for papers including The Daily Telegraph. Later, her interest in ballet waned, and she concentrated on reviewing plays. After Simon's sudden death in 1948, Brahms wrote solo for some years, but in the 1950s she established a second long-running collaboration with the writer and broadcaster Ned Sherrin, which lasted for the rest of her life. Together they wrote plays and musicals for the stage and television, and published both fiction and non-fiction books.
- Age: Dec. at 80 (1901-1982)
- Birthplace: Surrey, United Kingdom
John Henry Maunder
John Henry Maunder (February 21, 1858 – January 21, 1920) was an English composer and organist best known for his cantata "Olivet to Calvary" .- Age: Dec. at 61 (1858-1920)
- Birthplace: Chelsea, London, United Kingdom
Irene Scharrer
PianistIrene Scharrer (2 February 1888 – 11 January 1971) was an English classical pianist. Irene Scharrer was born in London and studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Tobias Matthay.Scharrer made her London début at the age of 16, and gave concerts regularly until June 1958, where she appeared for the last time, playing Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos with Myra Hess. They often performed four-handed compositions together. (Scharrer is sometimes erroneously described as Hess's cousin. She was distantly related to another fine woman pianist, Harriet Cohen, the two sharing a great-great-grandfather). Other collaborators included Arthur Nikisch in Berlin, and Landon Ronald in London. She visited Sir Edward Elgar in 1918 and was promised the first performance of his piano concerto, then being sketched. Her technique was one of refinement rather than power. Her surviving recordings show her at her best in the smaller pieces of the romantic repertoire, where her impeccable control, fine tone and lack of showiness serve the music well.- Age: Dec. at 82 (1888-1971)
- Birthplace: London, United Kingdom
Karel Mark Chichon
ConductorKarel Mark Chichon (born 1971, London) is a British-Gibraltarian orchestra conductor.- Age: 53
- Birthplace: London, United Kingdom
- Nancy Yuen is a Hong Kong-born Singaporean singer.
- Birthplace: Hong Kong, China
Kit Armstrong
Kit Armstrong (born March 5, 1992) is a British-American classical pianist and composer.- Age: 32
- Birthplace: California
Richard Stoker
Novelist, WriterRichard Stoker (born 8 November 1938 in Castleford, Yorkshire) is a British composer and writer. He started playing the piano at six; at seven he was composing. After initial encouragement from Arthur Benjamin and Benjamin Britten, he studied under Lennox Berkeley at the Royal Academy of Music. After winning the Mendelssohn Scholarship in 1962, he studied under Nadia Boulanger in Paris. After that he became a notable actor in films TV stage etc. He also was a Professor of composition at the Royal Academy of Music for 26 years. He was a tutor also at that institution and later became the Hon Treasurer and a Founder member of the Royal Academy of Music Guild. Stoker is also an Associate of the Royal College of Music and a Founder member of the Atlantic Council. Stoker has declared the piano to be his favourite instrument, with the guitar a close second. He has produced a number of pieces for both instruments. Among his other works are operas, a piano concerto, three string quartets, three piano trios, song cycles, choral works, orchestral works and organ music. He is a fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, and is a former editor of Composer magazine. Stoker is also an actor and film actor—he has appeared in over 100 films worldwide. Stoker is also a writer of fiction: he has published two novels, short stories and poetry, and has also written three plays. He has also exhibited drawings and paintings.- Age: 85
- Birthplace: Castleford, United Kingdom
- Jacqueline Anne Stallybrass (born December 1938) is an English actress who trained at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
- Age: 85
- Birthplace: Westcliff-on-Sea, United Kingdom
George Job Elvey
Sir George Job Elvey (1816–1893) was an English organist and composer.- Age: Dec. at 77 (1816-1893)
- Birthplace: Canterbury, United Kingdom
Roderick Watkins
Roderick Watkins (born 1964) a composer and Vice Chancellor (and former First Deputy Vice Chancellor Research and Innovation) at Anglia Ruskin University, England. He was appointed in 2015 after serving briefly as Pro-Vice Chancellor and Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Law and Social Sciences at Anglia Ruskin. He was previously Professor of Composition and Contemporary Music at Canterbury Christ Church University, Kent, England from 2005 to July 2014, where he was Programme Director for undergraduate Music and taught composition and contemporary music. Watkins was educated at Gresham's School and then took a degree in Philosophy and Composition at Oberlin in the US before studying at the Royal Academy of Music, where he won all of the Academy's main prizes for composition, completed his doctorate and became a Leverhulme Fellow. His teachers included Hans Werner Henze, Richard Hoffmann, and Paul Patterson. He also spent a year at IRCAM in Paris and later returned to IRCAM as a “compositeur en recherche” (research composer).- Age: 60
Sue Longhurst
ActorSue Longhurst is an English actress who appeared in several X-rated sex comedies in the 1970s.- Age: 81
- Birthplace: England, Bognor Regis
- Graham Johnson OBE (born 10 July 1950) is a British classical pianist and Lieder accompanist. He is also a noted author and an authority on song and poetry which includes some of the widest reaching studies ever of all of Schubert’s 600 or more songs.
- Age: 74
- Birthplace: Zimbabwe, Bulawayo
- Roxanna Panufnik (born 24 April 1968) is a British composer of Polish heritage. She is the daughter of the composer and conductor Sir Andrzej Panufnik.Panufnik was born in London. She attended Bedales School and then studied at the Royal Academy of Music. She has written a wide range of pieces including opera, ballet, music theatre, choral works, chamber compositions and music for film and television which are regularly performed all over the world.Among her most widely performed works are Westminster Mass, commissioned for Westminster Cathedral Choir on the occasion of Cardinal Hume's 75th birthday, The Music Programme, an opera for Polish National Opera's millennium season which received its UK premiere at the BOC Covent Garden Festival, and settings for solo voices and orchestra of Vikram Seth's Beastly Tales – the first of which was commissioned by the BBC for Patricia Rozario and City of London Sinfonia. All three Tales are available on disc. Panufnik has a particular interest in world music; a recent culmination of this was Abraham, a violin concerto commissioned by Savannah Music Festival for Daniel Hope, incorporating Christian, Islamic and Jewish music. This was then converted into an overture, commissioned by the World Orchestra for Peace and premiered in Jerusalem under the baton of Valery Gergiev. Recently premiered was her oratorio Dance of Life (in Latin and Estonian), incorporating her fourth mass setting, for multiple Tallinn choirs and the Tallinn Philharmonic Orchestra (commissioned to mark their tenure of European Capital of Culture 2011). Her Four World Seasons for violinist Tasmin Little was premiered with the London Mozart Players and broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 on 2 March 2012, as part of BBC Radio 3's Music Nation, celebrating the 2012 Olympics. The Bristol-based Exultate Singers, under their founder-conductor David Ogden, gave the premiere of Panufnik's Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis for the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music in 2012. Of the Magnificat, Panufnik said: I consulted my good friend, the Rev. Canon Michael Hampel, and he suggested the idea of interpolating the Ave Maria with the Magnificat – as those words of the Archangel Gabriel telling Mary that she was carrying God's son must have been utmost in her mind for the Magnificat, which is her response to that awesome news – the words she says when she visits her cousin Elizabeth. Piecing the two texts together, they have very close associations – it seemed a very natural thing to do. The piece is dedicated to the two commissioning choirs, Exultate Singers and St Mark's Episcopal Church Choir in Philadelphia, with thanks for our very happy continuing collaborations. Garsington Opera commissioned Panufnik's people's opera Silver Birch and gave the world premiere on 28 July 2017. With a libretto by writer Jessica Duchen this celebration of music, drama, poetry and dance brought together 180 performers on the stage and in the pit, from local schools and the community, working alongside professional soloists, Pinewood Group and the Garsington Opera Orchestra. Karen Gillingham, Creative Director of Garsington Opera's Learning & Participation Programme directed and Douglas Boyd, Garsington Opera's Artistic Director, conducted. Inspired by the timeless themes of war and relationships affected by it, the opera draws upon Siegfried Sassoon's poems and the testimony of a British soldier, who served recently in Iraq, to illustrate the human tragedies of conflicts past and present. Panufnik was the inaugural Associate Composer with the London Mozart Players, 2012–2015. She is a Vice-President of the Joyful Company of Singers.
- Age: 56
- Birthplace: London, United Kingdom
York Bowen
Edwin York Bowen (22 February 1884 – 23 November 1961) was an English composer and pianist. Bowen's musical career spanned more than fifty years during which time he wrote over 160 works. As well as being a pianist and composer, Bowen was a talented conductor, organist, violist and horn player. Despite achieving considerable success during his lifetime, many of the composer's works remained unpublished and unperformed until after his death in 1961. Bowen's compositional style is widely considered as ‘Romantic’ and his works are often characterized by their rich harmonic language. He was one of the most notable English composers of piano music of his time.- Age: Dec. at 77 (1884-1961)
- Birthplace: London, United Kingdom
Miloš Karadaglić
Miloš Karadaglić sometimes just his mononym Miloš is an award-winning classical guitarist and Deutsche Grammophon/Mercury Classics recording artist from Montenegro.- Age: 41
- Birthplace: Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
John McLeod
John McLeod (born 1934) is a Scottish composer. He was born in Aberdeen, but is based in Edinburgh. He writes music in many media including film and television. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Sir Lennox Berkeley. His Clarinet Concerto was premiered at the Queen's Hall in Edinburgh on 13 May 2007. In 2014, McLeod was rewarded with a BASCA Gold Badge Award . This was in recognition for his unique contribution to music. McLeod was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to music.- Age: 90
- Birthplace: Aberdeen, United Kingdom
Elizabeth Poston
Elizabeth Poston (24 October 1905 – 18 March 1987) was an English composer, pianist and writer. Poston was born in Highfield House in Pin Green, which is now the site of Hampson Park in Stevenage. In 1914, she moved with her mother, Clementine Poston, to nearby Rooks Nest House, where E. M. Forster had lived as a child. Poston and Forster subsequently became good friends. She studied at Queen Margaret's School, York, and at the Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, where she was encouraged by both Peter Warlock and Ralph Vaughan Williams. She won a prize from the RAM for her violin sonata, which was subsequently broadcast by the BBC. When she graduated from the RAM in 1925, seven of her songs were published, and in 1928 she published five more. Poston went abroad between 1930 and 1939, where she studied architecture and collected folksongs. When she returned to England at the beginning of World War II she joined the BBC and became director of music in the European Service. She left briefly in 1945, but returned in 1947 to advise on the creation of the BBC Third Programme. Poston was the president of the Society of Women Musicians 1955–61.Poston composed scores for radio and television productions – over 40 for radio alone – and collaborated with C. S. Lewis, Dylan Thomas, and other writers. She wrote the score for the television production of Howards End while living in Rooks Nest House, which was the setting for the novel.In addition to composing, Poston was an academic. She wrote articles and programme notes for the Arts Council of Great Britain and was the editor of a number of folksong carol and hymn collections. In 1947 she created a five-part lecture series on Peter Warlock for the BBC. Her carols, especially Jesus Christ the Apple Tree, remain widely performed. She was also a respected performer, premiering Walter Leigh’s Concertino for piano and strings and playing the piano at National Gallery Concerts.Poston continued to live at Rooks Nest House until her death at the age of 81 in 1987.- Age: Dec. at 81 (1905-1987)
- Birthplace: Hertfordshire, United Kingdom
- Gwilym Simcock (born 24 February 1981) is a British pianist and composer working in both jazz and classical music, and often blurring the boundaries of the two. Simcock was chosen as one of the 1000 Most Influential People in London by the Evening Standard. He was featured on the front cover of the August 2007 issue of the UK's leading Jazz journal Jazzwise Magazine.
- Age: 43
- Birthplace: Bangor, United Kingdom
John Baker
John Baker (12 October 1937 in Leigh-on-Sea – 7 February 1997 in Freshwater, Isle of Wight) was a British musician and composer who worked in jazz and electronic music. He was educated at the Royal Academy of Music where he studied piano and composition. In 1960 he joined the BBC as a sound mixer, before transferring, in 1963, to the BBC Radiophonic Workshop where he remained until 1974. He was the most prolific of the early Workshop composers, developing a trademark style, creating music by manipulating tapes of everyday sounds such as blowing across the top of an empty bottle. A rare snippet of Baker at work was included in the 1968 documentary film Music, which also featured the Beatles working on Hey Jude in the studio. A jazz pianist, he brought a sense of rhythm to the Workshop which some of the other more mathematical composers lacked. His work included many signature tunes for BBC television and radio. He was also particularly interested in combining recorded electronic music with live musicians. After becoming an alcoholic, Baker recorded no further music after being sacked by the Radiophonic Workshop in 1974 and later died in poverty. Two compilations of his work entitled The John Baker Tapes were released in July 2008 by Trunk Records.- Age: Dec. at 59 (1937-1997)
- Birthplace: Leigh-on-Sea, Southend-on-Sea, United Kingdom
Noel Mewton-Wood
PianistNoel Mewton-Wood (20 November 1922 – 5 December 1953) was an Australian-born concert pianist who achieved international fame on the basis of many distinguished concerto recordings during his short life.- Age: Dec. at 31 (1922-1953)
- Birthplace: Melbourne, Australia
Royston Nash
ConductorRoyston Hulbert Nash (23 July 1933 – 4 April 2016) was an English-born conductor, best known as a music director of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and, later, as the conductor of the Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra. His career as a conductor began with the Royal Marines from 1957 to 1970. He then joined D'Oyly Carte, becoming Music Director from 1971 to 1979. There, he led the company during its centenary year in 1975 and issued a number of recordings, including the company's only recordings of Utopia, Limited, The Grand Duke, and The Zoo, as well as recordings of some rarely heard Sullivan music. He then moved to the United States, where he became musical director of the Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra, the Nashua Symphony Orchestra, and other ensembles, until his retirement in 2007. He also founded and conducted Symphony by the Sea.- Age: 91
- Birthplace: England
Sir Joseph Barnby
ConductorSir Joseph Barnby (12 August 1838 – 28 January 1896) was an English musical composer and conductor.- Age: Dec. at 57 (1838-1896)
- Birthplace: York, United Kingdom
- Cornelius Cardew (7 May 1936 – 13 December 1981) was an English experimental music composer, and founder (with Howard Skempton and Michael Parsons) of the Scratch Orchestra, an experimental performing ensemble. He later rejected experimental music, explaining why he had "discontinued composing in an avantgarde idiom" in his own programme notes to his Piano Album 1973 in favour of a politically motivated "people's liberation music".
- Age: Dec. at 45 (1936-1981)
- Birthplace: Winchcombe, United Kingdom
- Robert Hugh "Hadley" Fraser (born 21 April 1980) is an English stage actor and singer. He made his West End debut as Marius in Les Misérables. He also originated the role of Tiernan in the Broadway show The Pirate Queen.
- Age: 44
- Birthplace: Windsor, United Kingdom
John Blackwood McEwen
Sir John Blackwood McEwen (13 April 1868 – 14 June 1948) was a Scottish classical composer and educator. He was professor of harmony and composition at the Royal Academy of Music, London, from 1898 to 1924, and principal from 1924 to 1936. He was a prolific composer, but made few efforts to bring his music to the notice of the general public.- Age: Dec. at 80 (1868-1948)
- Birthplace: Hawick, United Kingdom
