Lyell Cresswell - composer

Lyell Cresswell

Lyell Cresswell (1944) is a New Zealand composer now living in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Lyell Cresswell was born in Wellington, New Zealand. He studied in Wellington, Toronto, Aberdeen and Utrecht. After some time teaching at Glasgow University he joined the Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff as Music Organiser (1978-80). He returned to Scotland as Forman Fellow in Composition at Edinburgh University until 1982 and then spent the next three years as Cramb Fellow in Composition at Glasgow University.

In 1978 he won the Ian Whyte Award for the Orchestral work Salm, and in 1979 received the APRA Silver Scroll for his contribution to New Zealand music. His works have been recommended by the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers in 1979, 1981 and 1988.

Since 1985 Lyell has been a full-time composer based in Edinburgh. He has been a featured composer at festivals throughout Europe and in New Zealand, notably including the "Lyell Cresswell is Fifty" Festival at the Tramway, Glasgow, in 1994. In 1989 his Speak For Us, Great Sea was performed at the BBC Proms, London and in 1995 Dragspil for accordion and orchestra received its first performance at the Proms (for which it was commissioned).

In 1998 Lyell organised a festival of New Zealand music in Edinburgh, which featured instrumental and chamber music and culminated in a concert given by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under the baton of New Zealander Ken Young. A highlight of this last concert was the premiere of an especially commissioned work, Seikilos, by John Psathas

His most recent works include a Concerto for Orchestra and String Quartet which received its first performances recently by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Yggdrasil Quartet in Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh, and Dancing on a Volcano, written for the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

Currently, he is working on a concerto for the Swedish trombone player Christian Lindberg and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

PUBLISHED EDITIONS
The Belly of the Whale	Choir (SSAATTBB)	Choral
Whira	Solo violin	Instrumental