composers

Nicola LeFanu

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The Anglo-Irish composer Nicola LeFanu has been a key figure of the British musical scene since the early 1970's. She was born in 1947, daughter of Elizabeth Maconchy and related to that fine Victorian author Sheridan LeFanu. Growing up in a vibrant music household, it was undoubtedly her mother who early stimulated her musical imagination and technique: Nicola was composing actively when she became a student of Egon Wellesz at Oxford University (1965). When she entered the Royal College of Music in 1968 (she was later appointed a Fellow) she had already won several awards and prizes and was enjoying regular performances both here and abroad. Clearly a name to watch. For a few years she combined various part-time conducting and teaching posts before receiving a Harkness Award to study at Harvard with Earl Kim, while fulfilling increasingly major commissions such as the Proms in 1973 and the Fromm Foundation in Boston, US, in 1974. The following year she became head of music at St. Paul's Girls School (illustrious predecessors included Holst and Howells) and from 1977-94 at King's College, London, jointly with the Australian composer David Lumsdaine, whom she married in 1979. In 1994 she was appointed to her current position, Professor of Music at York University. If this were not enough, Nicola has also been Music Theatre Group director at Morley College, PRS Composer-in-Residence in North Norfolk, has been tirelessly involved in administrative or advisory work with the RVW Trust, SPNM, Arts Council and was a founder of Women in Music. She was awarded an Hon Dmus by Durham University in 1995.

Nicola LeFanu has been commissioned or featured by the BBC, CBSO, Boston Symphony Players, Ballet Rambert, New Opera Company, RTE, the Aldburgh, Cheltenham Dublin Contemporary, Norwich and Norfolk Festivals, PLG, Lontano, Netherlands Oboe Quartet, Gemini, Rascher Quaratet, Capricorn, Jane Manning, Concorde, Women's Playhouse Trust and many others. Her music is played and broadcast world-wide and several pieces have been commercially recorded.