About George Newson

George Newson was born in London in 1932. As a child he taught himself to read music and played the piano; then at 14 years old he began to study seriously when he was awarded a scholarship to the Blackheath Conservatoire of Music London. Nine years later he won a second scholarship: this time to study composition at the Royal Academy of Music with Alan Bush and Howard Furguson. Post graduate studies took him to Dartington and Darmstadt summer schools during the late 50s and early 60s where he came into contact with the Americans Elliot Carter and John Cage’ and studied with the Italians, Luciano Berio, Bruno Maderna and Luigi Nono.

In 1967 he was awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship to research electronic music in the USA. He worked principally with Robert Moog in Trumansburg and at the University of Urbana, Illinois where he made his first tape composition, Silent Spring. The success of his research brought invitations from Berio and Gottfried Michael Koenig to work in the studios of the RAI in Milan during 1968 and the University of Utrecht in 1969. The resulting works were Canto II for clarinet and tape (performed at the Venice Biennale) and Genus II for tape.

Other major awards include an Arts Council of Great Britain grant in 1965, a British Council tour of Hungary/Romania in 1977. From 1972-77 he was the Cramb Research Fellow in composition at Glasgow University, from 1978-81 he was Composer-in-Residence at Queen’s University Belfast. Before these two posts he was lecturer in electronic music at Goldsmith’s College, London.

Compositions include commissions for the London Symphony Orchestra (Symphony in 2 movements and 27 Days), the BBC Symphony Orchestra (Arena), the Scottish National Orchestra (Symphony 2 – Even To The Edge of Doom), the New Music Group of Scotland (And When Love Speaks and Valentine), and The Matrix (The Unbroken Circle) and works for Orchestre National de Lille and the Nash Ensemble amongst others.

Newson wrote for many distinguished performers including The King’s Singers, Cleo Laine, Alan Hacker and Jane Manning, and this group of artists took part in Arena, a large scale music theatre piece commissioned for the BBC Proms in 1971 which was conducted by Boulez. In 1972 he received another important commission from the BBC, a radio cantata: Praise To The Air. The text of this was especially written by Scottish poet George Macbeth. Other notable literary figures Newson collaborated with include the poets Edwin Morgan, Peter Porter and Alan Sillitoe.

Newson’s compositions have been extensively played in the UK, USA and Europe and his development as a composer changed over time, from an abstract style in the 1960s to a later more distilled form using tonality to counterpoint a lyrical melodic line whilst maintaining experimental at his core - in 1982 he made his first visit (following an invitation from Boulez) to IRCAM in Paris.  Over his career he composed for all forms, from operas, choral works, pieces for youth orchestra, instrumental and vocal works and electronics.

George Newson passed away on 8th March 2024 aged 91.