Biography
Peter Maxwell Davies was born on 8 September 1934 in Salford, near Manchester, and studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music and the University of Manchester, alongside Harrison Birtwistle and Alexander Goehr among others. Further studies took him to Goffredo Petrassi in Rome and to Princeton University, where he studied with Roger Sessions and Milton Babbitt. With works such as 'Eight Songs for a Mad King' (1968), he became one of the defining voices of the British musical avant-garde, composing ten symphonies and numerous operas, including 'The Lighthouse', 'Resurrection' and 'Cinderella'. In 1977 he founded the St Magnus Festival in Orkney, where many of his works received their premieres; from 2004 to 2014 he held the post of Master of the Queen's Music, one of the highest musical offices in Britain. Davies died on 14 March 2016 on the Orkney island of Sanday.
On Stagelog
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