Lyell Cresswell

Professional

Location:	Wellington
Composer/Lyricist:	Composer
Genre:	Concert
Representation:	Promethean Editions Ltd PO Box 10-143 The Terrace Wellington 64 4 473 5033

Biography

Lyell Cresswell was born in Wellington, New Zealand on 13 October 1944. He studied in Wellington, Toronto, Aberdeen and Utrecht. After some teaching at Glasgow University he joined Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff as Music Organiser (1978-80). He returned to Scotland as Forman Fellow in Composition at Edinburgh University until 1982 and spent the next three years as Cramb Fellow in Composition at Glasgow University. In 1987 he won the Ian Whyte Award for the Orchestral work Salm, and in 1979 received the APRA Silver Scroll for his contribution to New Zealand music. His works have been recommended by the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers in 1979, 1981 and 1988. Since 1985 he has been a full-time composer based in Edinburgh.

Lyell Cresswell has been a featured composer at Musica Nova, Glasgow 1984; Sonorities Festival of Twentieth Century Music, Belfast 1985; Asian Music Festival, Tokyo 1990; New Zealand International Festival of the Arts, Wellington 1990; St. Magnus Festival, Orkney 1991; Musica Insieme, Bologna 1992; Academy Now! Festival, Glasgow 1993; Middelburg Festival, Netherlands 1993; "Lyell Cresswell is Fifty" Festival at the Tramway, Glasgow 1994, in February 1996 at the Concerti Aperitivo, Teatro Comunale, Modena, and in April 1998 at the Federico Garcia Lorca festival, Bologna. He has been a guest of the Warsaw Autumn Festival 1985; the Philippine-Asian Music Festival, Manila 1988, Festival of the Asian Composers' League, Taipei 1994, guest lecturer at L'Accademia di Brera, Milan 1987 and L'Accademia di Belle Arti, Bologna 1994, and artistic director of the New Zealand, New Music festival in Edinburgh in 1998. In 1989 his Speak for us, great sea was performed at the BBC Proms, London, and in 1995 Dragspil for accordion and orchestra received its first performance at the Proms (for which it was commissioned).

His most recent large-scale works are Concerto for Orchestra and String Quartet (commissioned by the City of Aberdeen for the Yggdrasil Quartet and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra) and KAEA (Trombone Concerto) for Christian Lindberg and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

Important Works		Performances
Salm (1977) 20' 3333/4331/timp/3perc/harp/strings Rec: Continuum CCD 1034 Winner of the 1978 Ian Whyte Award Concerto for Cello and Orchestra (1984) 30' cello/3333/4331/timp/3perc/harp/strings commissioned by the Scottish National Orchestra Rec: Continuum CCD 1033 A Modern Ecstasy (1986) 45' mezzo sop & baritone/2222/4331/timp/2perc/strings commissioned anonymously text: Patrick Maguire Rec: Continuum CCD 1033 Ylur (1990-91) 27' 2222/4330/3perc/strings commissioned by St Magnus Festival Dragspil (Accordion Concerto) (1994-95) 29' accordion/2222/4331/3perc/harp/strings commissioned by the BBC Concerto for Orchestra and String Quartet (1996) 25' string quartet/3333/4331/timp/3perc/harp/strings commissioned by the City of Aberdeen KAEA (Trombone Concerto) (1997) 18' trombone/picc/fl/ob/cor ang/cl/b.cl/bn/cbn/2hn/2tpt/strings commissioned by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra Il Suono di Enormi Distanze (1992-93) 25' mezzo sop/fl(+picc)/ob(+cor ang)/cl/b.cl/ bn(+c.bn)/hn/tbn/1perc/harp/2vln/vla/vlc/cb commissioned by the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama text: Marco Bucchieri Atta (1993) 20' cello Rec. CD Manu 1543 To Aspro Pano Sto Aspro (White on White) (1985) 18' SATB (divisi) a cappella commissioned by Cappella Nova texts: Yannis Ritsos Rec: Linn CKD 014		None added