James Dillon (composer)

James Dillon (born October 29, 1950 in Glasgow ) is a Scottish composer.

Life

Dillon studied art and design at the Glasgow School of Art in 1968 , linguistics at the University College of London in 1970 , acoustics at the University of North London in 1971 and mathematics with Gordon Millar at the Tavistock Institute from 1971 to 1972 ; He also had piano lessons with Eleanor Purse , studied Indian rhythm with Punita Gupta and from 1984 to 1985 took courses in computer music at IRCAM . As a composer, however, he was self-taught.

In 1978 he won first prize in the competition at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival . His first string quartet was premiered here in 1983 by the Arditti String Quartet , which also played the world premieres of his other string quartets. The Huddersfield Festival devoted a major retrospective to his work in 1995.

In 1982 he received the Kranichstein Music Prize in Darmstadt . He taught in Darmstadt from 1982 to 1992 and in 1991 led the composition class at the Gothenburg Summer Academy. In addition, he was between 1989 and 1992 guest lecturer at Goldsmiths College of the University of London , and between 1993 and 1996 at the University of Central England in Birmingham . He has taught in numerous European countries, including in 2003 at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in the USA.

Between 1985 and 1996 Dillon's “ German Triptych ” was created, which includes the works “ Überreiten ”, written in 1985 for the London Sinfonietta , “ Bright Night ” for large orchestra (1987) and the flute concerto “ Blitzschlag ”, performed in 1996 by Pierre-Yves Artaud and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra , conducted by Martyn Brabbins .

In the 1980s and 1990s, " Nine Rivers " was a series of nine large, ambitious works with a wide variety of casts, which are linked by the metaphor of the river and flow into the large-scale piece " Okeanos ", a work commissioned by the BBC Proms for 1996. His “ Violin Concerto ” was also written for the Proms, premiered in 2000 by Thomas Zehetmair and, in turn, by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Martyn Brabbins.

With “ L'évolution du vol ” Dillon created a song cycle for female voice and chamber orchestra. The first volume of “ Traumwerk ”, a series of violin pieces, was awarded first prize in the field of chamber music by the Royal Philharmonic Society , as was the fifth volume of his cycle for solo piano “ The Book of Elements ” in 2003 . With the " Via Sacra " and " La Navette ", commissioned by the Société Philharmonique de Bruxelles and commissioned for the 2001 Donaueschinger Musiktage , Dillon presented the first two parts of the four-part cycle " Via sacra ".

In 2004 his opera Philomela was premiered in Porto , and in March 2005 the Quatuor Diotima premiered his “ Fourth String Quartet ”, for which he was also awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Communication from the RPS , accessed on January 18, 2011, English

Web links

• James Dillon at CF Peters
• James Dillon at CF Peters as pdf , biography and list of works