Geoffrey Álvarez

Geoffrey Alvarez
Portrait Photograph by Malcolm Crowthers
Born	1961 London
Occupation	Composer conductor writer librettist
Nationality	British
www.myspace.com/geoffreyalvarez

Geoffrey Alvarez is a British/Nicaraguan composer and conductor.

He chairs the annual international composition competition run by The Alvarez Chamber Orchestra.

He studied composition privately with Giles Swayne, then with Paul Patterson at the Royal Academy of Music as a Leverhulme scholar, and later at the University of York with David Blake and Richard Orton, where he obtained a D.Phil.

He is also a writer on music and inventor of Gravesian Analysis.

Some of his papers are published in Gravesiana: The Journal of the Robert Graves Society, whilst he has contributed several articles for Tempo on the work of composers such as Michael Finnissy and Alexander Goehr Arianna (Goehr). Whilst his own work (his setting of Psalm XXIII in Hebrew) was reviewed in the same publication by Mark R. Taylor.

His compositions range from the wind quintet The Travelling Musicians, performed by the Harlequin Wind Quintet in the Purcell Room in 2001 to seven symphonies and numerous operas including a collaboration with poetess Ruth Fainlight commissioned by the Garden Venture of the Royal Opera House: The European Story.

In November 2006, Geoffrey Alvarez returned from Poland as a prize winning finalist and soloist with the Arthur Rubenstein Łódź Philharmonic Orchestra in the Final of the Tansman 6th International Competition of Musical Personalities, Composers Competition, Łódź 2006.

Selected works

Music

• Montage for Clarinet, Horn & Orchestra (1979) 14'

Michael Collins, clarinet, Peter Kronheimer, horn, Alvarez Chamber Orchestra,
St Giles, Cripplegate 1979

• TheTell-Tale Heart (Opera) (1981-3) 40'

First staged performance: Royal Academy of Music Opera Department 1984

• Oboe Concerto (1984–85) 25 '

Nicholas Daniel, Alvarez Chamber Orchestra,
St. John's Smith Square

• Three Madrigals for Chamber Choir (1986-8) 15'

First Madrigal, BBC. Singers, Maide Vale Studios (1993)

• Lament in Memoriam Anderson (1987) 17'

University of York Chamber Orchestra, Roger Montgomery, 1987
Winner of the University of York Chamber Orchestra Commission.

• Songs My Parrot Taught Me (1992) 40'

Polyphiloi, Conducted by Malcolm Singer, Purcell Room September 1993

• Bastien and Bastienne Arias - Mozart, Recitatives - Geoffrey Alvarez (1993) 70'

(1) English Country Opera Peckover House (1993)
(2) Northlands Festival, Ackergill Tower (1994)
(3) Chelse Arts Club

• The Laughing Lotus for Woodwind Quintet (1997) 10'

(1) The Oxford University Contemporary Music Society, February 15, 1998
(2) The Oxford University Contemporary Music Ensemble,
Oxford Festival of Contemporary Music, May 15, 1998

• The Travelling Musicians a Pantomime for Wind Quintet (1999–2000) 25'
• Psalm XXIII for soprano and piano (2000) 21'

Lisa Nolan, soprano and Christine Grieg, piano St. Cyprian's Church, NW1 October 7, 2000

• My Last Muse for bass and orchestra (2000) 29'

A setting of five poems by Robert Graves in consultation with Julia Simonne, Graves’ last Muse.
Patrick Ardagh: Baritone, Alvarez Chamber Orchestra, Julia Simonne: reciter, Timothy Walker: guitar
St. John's Smith Square, 2008

• Concertino: for piano and chamber orchestra (2001) 18'

For Luciano Berio

• El Duende: for tenor and piano (2002) 20'

A setting of six poems by Federico García Lorca.

• Tríptico Nicaragüense: for tenor and piano (2002)

A setting of three poems by Ruben Darío

• Teares or Lamentations: Six Sundry Sights: for 10 course lute
• Magnificat: for SATB chorus (2004) 6'

first public performance The Waltham Singers to be conducted by Andrew Fardell 2010

• The Old Jewish Cemetery in Lodz (2008) 8'

for string orchestra Alvarez Chamber Orchestra, Polish Embassy in London, 2008

• Fantasia on Tansman's Last Theme: Alla Polacca (2008) 10'

Alvarez Chamber Orchestra, St. John's Smith Square, 2008

• Missa Regina Elissa: for chorus, timpani, organ and strings (2009) 15'

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Work in Progress:

• La profecía última del rey: Opera in five acts (2003)

Complete Catalogue[1]

Publishers

Most of his works are published by Campion Press Music Publishers

His Tears or Lamentations: Six Sundry Sighs for 10-course lute are available from Lute Society Publications.

Awards and honours

• Eric Coates Composition Prize, Royal Academy of Music, 1979
• Josiah Parker Composition Prize, Royal Academy of Music, 1980
• Royal Overseas League 'Bernard Shore' Composition Award 1990.
• Recommended work: I International Uuno Klami Composition Competition 2003-2004
• Fourth Prize in The Tansman 6th International Competition of Musical Personalities, Composers Competition, Łódź 2006

References

• Interview with David Bruce on Composition Today