Erik Chisholm

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Erik Chisholm (born January 4, 1904 in Glasgow , † June 8, 1965 in Cape Town ) was a Scottish composer and conductor .

life and work

Erik Chisholm studied from the age of 13 at the Glasgow Athenaeum School of Music (later the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama ) organ with Herbert Walton and piano with Philip Halstead , later in England piano with the Ukrainian pianist Lev Pouishnoff . In 1926 he took over positions as organist and choir director in New Glasgow, Canada . After his return to Scotland he studied composition with Donald Francis Tovey at Edinburgh University , which he graduated with a doctorate in 1934. From 1930 to 1939 he worked as conductor of the Glasgow Grand Opera Society and founded the Active Society for the Propagation of Contemporary Music, which invited internationally known composers such as Hindemith and Bartók to perform their own works in Scotland. In 1940 Chisholm headed the Carl Rosa Opera Company . In the following years he worked as music director for the Entertainments National Service Association , which sent him to Bombay in 1945 to found an orchestra, then he traveled to Singapore and founded the Singapore Symphony Orchestra there . In 1946 Chisholm was appointed director of the South African College of Music at the University of Cape Town . At the university he founded an opera company and an opera school and in the following years directed a number of opera premieres in South Africa. The Cape Town Opera later developed from his Opera School . He also went on concert tours to the USA, the British Isles and the Soviet Union, where he met Shostakovich .

As a composer, Erik Chisholm created several operas based on his own libretti (including "Canterbury Tales", 1961/62), ballet music and orchestral works (including two symphonies and two piano concertos), chamber music and numerous songs. In his earlier works Chisholm took up Celtic scales and themes, later he also integrated influences from Hindustan music ; the first piano concerto, premiered in 1935, is entitled “ Piobaireachd Concerto”, the second symphony from 1939 is called “Ossian”, and the second piano concerto finished in 1949 is called “The Hindustani”.

Erik Chisholm is also the author of the book "The Operas of Leoš Janáček" published posthumously in 1971.

literature

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personal data
SURNAME Chisholm, Erik
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Scottish composer and conductor
DATE OF BIRTH 4th January 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Glasgow
DATE OF DEATH June 8, 1965
Place of death Cape Town