BIRTWISTLE, HARRISON ( b. Lancashire, England, 15 July 1934. )
Birtwistle studied at The Royal Manchester College of Music and at the Royal Academy of Music, London.
His professional life began as a clarinetist and teacher. In 1967 he founded the Pierrot Players in London, with his contemporary at the Royal Manchester College, composer Peter Maxwell Davies. Three years later The Pierrot Players became the Fires of London, under Maxwell Davies. Birtwistle and fellow clarinetist Alan Hacker then founded their own group, called Matrix.
In 1968 a chamber opera, Punch and Judy, premièred at the Aldeburgh Festival. Since then, and after a period as composer in residence at the National Theatre in London, he has become one of the UK’s most prolific opera composers. He has had new works commissioned by English National Opera, and, following in that company’s tracks, The Royal Opera Company at Covent Garden (Gawain in 1991), and, most recently, Glyndebourne Festival Opera (The Second Mrs Kong).
