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Biography |
Lionel Sainsbury is increasingly recognised as one of Britain's leading present-day composers. In March 2010 his Violin Concerto and Allegro Risoluto for strings were released on Dutton-Epoch, the concerto also being broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Recent performances have included the first of his Five Fantasias for guitar at the Gloucester Three Choirs Festival, and his Violin Sonata at the Fitzwilliam Chamber Series in Cambridge. Other works available on CD are Two Nocturnes for strings on Naxos, and Cuban Dance No.2 for violin and piano on EMI.
Born in Wiltshire, England, Sainsbury began to play the piano at an early age and soon started to compose his own music. He later studied at the Guildhall School of Music with Patric Standford, winning prizes as both composer and pianist.
At the age of 21 he was awarded the prestigious Mendelssohn Scholarship, a biennial UK award for composers, which enabled him to discuss his music with figures as diverse as Edmund Rubbra and John McCabe, and in Paris with Henri Dutilleux.
Lionel Sainsbury’s catalogue to date includes concertos for violin and for cello, a symphonic poem Time of the Comet, and several works for strings. He has written a substantial body of piano music, and works for violin, solo guitar, clarinet and piano, and two pianos.
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Sainsbury’s music has been performed in the UK, Europe and the Far East. It has been broadcast on BBC Radios 3, and 2, Classic FM, Radio France, NHK TV/Radio in Japan and in the USA. Venues in the UK include Wigmore Hall, St John's Smith Square, the Dartington International Summer School, and the Worcester Three Choirs, Aldeburgh, Harrogate, Lichfield and Norfolk & Norwich Festivals.
Amongst performers who have played his work are Tasmin Little and Piers Lane, Craig Ogden, Lorraine McAslan, Jack Gibbons, and Rupert Luck. In the orchestral field his music has been conducted by Barry Wordsworth, William Boughton, Paul Murphy, Adrian Lucas and Gavin Sutherland, with orchestras such as the BBC Concert Orchestra, Royal Ballet Sinfonia, English String Orchestra and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. |
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Lionel Sainsbury performing at the 2001 EPTA Conference
in the Jacqueline du Pré Music Building, St. Hilda's College, Oxford. |
Also active as a performer, Lionel has been described as "a prodigiously gifted pianist" (Oxford Times). He has recorded a CD of his own piano music, from which his Cuban Fantasy was given its premiere broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
Alongside his own work he has performed music by Bach, Scarlatti, Chopin, Schumann, Rachmaninov and Debussy. |
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