Richard Whalley

Richard Whalley is a composer and pianist living in Manchester, where he is a Senior Lecturer in Composition at the University of Manchester. His compositions take their inspiration from the passage of time and memory, analogies with visual art and sculpture, from geopolitics (e.g. the plight of refugees, the fallout from Brexit, the climate emergency) and – increasingly – from nature: physical processes which may be huge (e.g. glaciation and erosion of mountains) or microscopic (e.g. looking in detail at the structure of plants).

Sonic exploration plays a large part here, blurring the distinction between standard and extended performing techniques and the distinction between musical parameters, sometimes incorporating indeterminacy in order to create soundscapes of greater freedom and spontaneity than is possible when everything is co-ordinated precisely. Structures and contours found in nature often inform the approach to structure, timing and line, and details are often finely crafted, but combined in ways that should sound improvised. At times the aim is to produce music of great intimacy, elsewhere it is the opposite: to create music that is overwhelmingly powerful, like a force of nature itself.

He was a finalist in the 1992 BBC Young Musician of the Year Composers’ Award and the 2001 Gaudeamus International Composers Award with Elegy (for chamber ensemble), and a featured composer in Ensemble Aleph’s Second Forum for Composers in 2002/3, for whom he wrote Twisted Variations. In 2009 Five Preludes was the winning composition in the International Music Prize for Excellence in Composition 2009. Interlocking Melodies for string quartet was selected for performance in the 2012 ISCM World Music Days in Flanders, and in 2015 he was commissioned (as a finalist in the Feeding Music Competition) to write Wonderland for Divertimento Ensemble for performance during Milan Expo 2015. In 2016, Misplaced Time Refound for solo flute was shortlisted for a BASCA British Composer Award. His music has been performed in the US and throughout Europe by numerous outstanding soloists and ensembles, and long-term collaborations include those with the Quatuor Danel, the Ebonit Saxophone Quartet, the Yve Poprawski Dance School in Germany (for whom he wrote a number of piano pieces) and with the poet / librettist John McAuliffe. A number of his works are commercially recorded, including a solo CD his music, ‘A Feast for the Senses’ released in 2012, and a CD of saxophone quartets by himself and Kevin Malone performed by the Ebonit Saxophone Quartet, ‘Troubled Waters’, released in 2020.

As a pianist he has built a wide-ranging repertoire extending from Bach and Beethoven to John Cage, George Crumb, Morton Feldman, Helmut Lachenmann and Judith Weir. He has premiered numerous new works by composers including himself, Chiu-Yu Chou, Tom Coult, Chia-Ying Lin, Kevin Malone, Maria Palapanidou, Camden Reeves, Peter Swinnen. An important part of his identity as a performer is long-term collaborations with musicians including Helen Tonge (violin), Eric Robberecht (violin), Dimitra Ananiadou (violin) and the Quatuor Danel, indeed most of his piano performance tends to be chamber music. In 2024/25 he recorded with violinist Dimitra Ananiadou three Beethoven violin sonatas: op.23, op.30 no.2 and op.47 (the ‘Kreutzer’). Between 2010 and 2019, whilst teaching composition at the Aram-Poitou summer school in France, he performed regularly as a chamber musician in the Concerts en nos Villages series. His piano teachers were Kate Elmitt whilst growing up in Hertfordshire, Karen Evans whilst a student at the University of York and Stephen Drury during his PhD at Harvard.

He has taught composition at the University of Manchester since 2004, and is much in demand as a supervisor at Masters and PhD levels from students all over the world. Besides the University of Manchester, he taught every August from 2010-2019 on the composition masterclass at the ARAM-Poitou Summer School in France, and also in 2018 on the Irish Composition Summer School in 2018. He studied composition with Roger Marsh and Nicola Lefanu at University of York as an undergraduate / Masters (1992-1996), and with Mario Davidovsky and Joshua Fineberg at Harvard University for his PhD (1997-2003).

His scores are published by Composers Edition at http://composersedition.com/ and you can find information about his music at http://www.richardwhalley.com/ and from videos posted on Richard Whalley - YouTube

Music and ecosystems. 

The influence of processes in nature on musical composition.

The influence of shapes and textures found in nature on musical composition.

The influence on geopolitics and human geography on composition.

The influence of visual art and sculpture on musical composition.

The perception of time and memory and its influence on musical composition.

The list below shows more specific research interests within selected compositions over recent years.

Chamber opera telling story of Erysichthon (ongoing)

• Originating from Ovid, this tells the story of how Erysichthon cut down a sacred forest and was punished by eternal hunger, engaging with themes of environmentalism and female emancipation. Libretto by John McAuliffe

Unwanted Wildness (2023) for two violins

• The growth of weeds and wildflower on the Ashton Canal in Manchester

Assynt to Letterewe (2023) for open instrumentation

• Shapes of mountains and shifting weather conditions in NW Scotland

Erysichthon’s Forest (2022) for soprano, bass, cello and piano

• Scenes from ongoing chamber opera about Erysichthon

Lud’s Church (2020) for 19-tone trumpet and pre-recorded multitracks

• A portrait of a ravine in the Peak District, including geography and mythology associated with place.

Les Adieux (2019) for violin and piano

• Goodbye to the EU, as expressed through a musical tapestry built around national anthems of EU countries.

Mantle Plume (2019) for string quartet

• A musical portrait of the Icelandic landscape and the geology that created it.

Refugees Welcome ♥ (2017) for saxophone quartet

• The plight of refugees fleeing from Syria

Kinderszenen (2016) for piano solo

• A set of piano pieces based around scenes of my own childrens’ early childhoods

Iapetus Suture (2016) for saxophone quartet

• A geological fault that is all the is left of the former Iapetus Ocean, now situated roughly between northern England and southern Scotland.

Misplaced Time Refound (2015) for solo flute

• The nature of memory, as informed by Umberto Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum

Wonderland (2015) for 7 instrumentalists

• The changing natural surroundings on a walk from Alderley Edge to Hare Hill (in Cheshire)

Frozen (2014) for clarinet in A, violin, cello and piano

• The sounds of frozen landscapes, as informed by experience of aftermath of a Michigan icestorm in December 2013

Three Roses (2013) for symphony orchestra

• A response to paintings of roses by Cy Twombly

this and that (2012) for 8 singers and chamber orchestra

• A setting of an abstract poem by Ira Lightman

Butterflies (2012) for piano solo

• The movement of butterflies.

A Very Serious Game (2012) for ensemble (14 players)

• Musical transformations as sonic analogies to images of M.C Escher.

Current / recent teaching

Undergraduate:

MUSC10311/2: Sonic Invention

MUSC20321 Instrumental Composition

MUSC20611/20621 Ensemble Performance (Contemporary Ensemble option)

MUSC30300 Composition Portfolio

Postgraduate:

MUSC40061 Contemporary Music Studies

MUSC40091 Composition Etudes

MUSC40102 Composition Project

MUSC60042 Advanced Orchestration

MUSC40120 Portfolio of Compositions

PhD: 

Guillermo Martinez (2011-12)

McConnie Providence (2016-17)

Simon Hellewell (2017-23)

Maria Palapanidou (2018-22)

Alex Apostolopoulos (2020-24)

Wing Hei Ip (2021-present)

Renaldo Ramai (2021-present)

Atefeh Einali (2021-present)

Adnan Marafi (2022-present)

Ding Feng (2024-present)

More information about Richard's music can be found at:

http://www.richardwhalley.com/

Scores can be ordered from:

http://composersedition.com/composers/richardwhalley

A selection of recordings can be heard at:

Stream Richard Whalley music | Listen to songs, albums, playlists for free on SoundCloud

Richard Whalley - YouTube