composers

David Knotts

• Coyote Star Song

David Knotts began his musical studies as Junior at the Royal Academy of music and continued at King's College, Cambridge where he studied composition with Robin Holloway. He gained a first class degree as well as a prize for performance and continued his composition studies with Robert Saxton at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

David Knotts has twice been a finalist in the Young Musician of the Year Composer award with pieces performed by the Nash Ensemble and the London Sinfonietta. His music has been broadcast on Radio Three by the BBC Singers and the Endymion Ensemble and he has also been broadcast as an accompanist. Recent commissions have included South East Arts, the New London Children?s Choir and the Schubert Ensemble.

From 1996-1998 he was Head of Composition at the Yehudi Menuhin School, and has worked as Musical Director for Glyndebourne’s Youth Opera group. He also spent three years as Education Consultant for spnm and now maintains a very high profile as an educationalist and animateur developing work with a number of clients including Aldeburgh, Opera Threatre Company, Viva!, the Wigmore Hall, ENO Baylis, the South Bank Centre, Spitalfields Festival and the City of London Sinfonia.

2002 included the exciting premières of two large-scale works: the BBC Philharmonic orchestra gave the first performance of Nightwatching: Ways of Looking at the Moon under the baton of James MacMillan at the 2002 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and was featured on BBC Radio 3’s Hear and Now. The opera Stormlight, with writer Katharine Craik, was given a stunning first performance by W11 Opera in December.

More recent commissions include Bring Down an Angel for the BBC and Golden Threads and Silver Strings for the 2003 Spitalfields Festival, a new opera with writer Katharine Craik for English National Opera, a work for bassoon and orchestra for the BBC Symphony Orchestra as well as performances of a new piece for chamber orchestra, Dolorato, given by the Scottish and Swedish Chamber orchestras in December. David Knotts was awarded a doctorate by the University of Sussex in November, 2004.