BIOGRAPHY
Richard Peat was awarded a scholarship to study with Sir Peter Maxwell Davies on the advanced composition course at the Dartington International Summer School, 2008. His first publicly performed work, Tenebrae, was given by the Britten Sinfonia at the Sounds New Festival in 1997. He studied privately with Paul Max Edlin and at City University with Rhian Samuel, where he was awarded a BMus with first class honours, an MA with distinction and a PhD. He taught theory and composition at City for four years whilst completing his doctorate and is currently Director of Music at Walthamstow Hall.
He has led composition workshops for several regional arts festivals and is a regular contributor to Faber Music’s Fingerprints series (publications designed to introduce young performers to contemporary music). In 2005 he was selected to take part in the SPNM’s Sound Inventors scheme, and was a successful entrant in the John Armitage Memorial competition in 2002 and 2005.
Based on the novel by Susan Hill, his opera, I’m the King of the Castle, written in collaboration with writer Timothy Knapman, was performed at the Holywell Music Room in September 2006. He has had other works performed by leading artists such as: the London Sinfonietta; Martyn Brabbins; Stephen Layton; Nicholas Cleobury; Mark Menzies; the Kreutzer Quartet; the New Century Players; Icebreaker; Jane Manning; Onyx Brass; Ixion; the Choir of St. Bride’s Fleet Street; Lynsey Docherty; Helen Reid; Camilla Pay; Sarah James; Jenny Ferrar; the Korros ensemble; the Marylebone Trio and the Aurora Ensemble.
His research interests include the role of composition in education, the music of Latvian composer Pēteris Vasks, the harpsichord in the 20th/21st Century and the representation of children in opera. Fiery the Angels, commissioned for Giles Underwood and Onyx Brass to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the John Armitage Memorial was recently broadcast on BBC Radio 3.