Robin Orr
Robert Kelmsley (Robin) Orr CBE (2 June 1909 – 9 April 2006) was a Scottish composer.
Born in Brechin, he studied at the Royal College of Music in London and at Pembroke College, Cambridge where he studied under Cyril Rootham. Following studies with Alfredo Casella and Nadia Boulanger he returned to Cambridge in 1938 as Organist of St John's College. During his war service Herbert Howells deputized for him. After World War II he became a lecturer at Cambridge and a professor at the Royal College of Music, then Gardiner Professor of Music at Glasgow University from 1956 to 1965. He returned to Cambridge in 1965 as Professor of Music, a post he held until his retirement in 1976 (later Emeritus). He was made a CBE in 1972.
His works include three operas: Full Circle (STV for Scottish Opera, 1968), Hermiston (Edinburgh Festival 1975) and On the Razzle (RSAMD 1988), three Symphonies, and the Sinfonietta Helvetica (1990), alongside church music and solo and chamber works.
External links
- Official website
- The Five Centuries of Scottish Music collection contains free digitized scores of his works.
- Use dmy dates from November 2012
- 1909 births
- 2006 deaths
- Scottish classical composers
- British male classical composers
- Scottish opera composers
- Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge
- English classical organists
- Fellows of St John's College, Cambridge
- Academics of the University of Glasgow
- Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
- Alumni of the Royal College of Music
- People from Brechin
- Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music
- People educated at Loretto School, Musselburgh
- Male classical composers
- Scottish musician stubs
- British composer stubs