composers

Edward Rushton

• Combat in the Year Thousand

Edward Rushton studied piano and composition (with Colin Touchin and Michael Ball) at Chetham's School of Music before going on to read Music at King's College, Cambridge. While at King's, he studied composition with Robin Holloway. After graduation in 1994 he took the MMus degree in composition at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, where his teacher was James MacMillan. He enhanced his education by taking part in summer schools on Hoy, with Sir Peter Maxwell Davies and Judith Weir, and at Snape, with Magnus Lindberg and Colin Matthews. He is now based in Zurich and works as a freelance composer and pianist.

Works have been commissioned by such groups as the Endymion Ensemble, the Northern Junior Philharmonic Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, the Schubert Ensemble of London, the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Camerata Zürich, Vokalensemble Cantapella. Rushton was Composer in Residence at the Musikfesttage of the Orpheum Stiftung, Zurich in September 2002. His orchestral piece Rounds was premiered then by the Tonhalle Orchestra conducted by Jonathan Nott. Everything goes so fast, a 5-minute orchestral piece written for the London Symphony Orchestra's Soundscapes: Pioneers scheme received its first performance in 2008.

Rushton has been active composing operas: The Young Man with the Carnation, based on the short story by Karen Blixen (libretto: Tom Smith), was premiered by The Opera Group in July 2002 at Almeida Opera in London; Leinen aus Smyrna (libretto: Dagny Gioulami) was joint-winner of the Teatro Minimo competition organised by Opernhaus Zürich and the Bavarian State Opera in 2001, the resulting commission for a full-length opera, Harley, was premiered at the Opernhaus Zürich in autumn 2005. More recently he has added Philoctetes (2004), Die fromme Helene (2006), The Shops (2006-7), and Im Schatten des Maulbeerbaums (2007).

edwardrushton@gmx.co.uk