Richard Whalley was appointed as lecturer in composition at the University of Manchester in 2004. He studied music at University of York (1992-96), gaining an MA in Composition with Roger Marsh in 1996, before earning a PhD in Composition at Harvard University (1997-2003), with Mario Davidovsky and Joshua Fineberg. Whilst a student he attended several advanced composition masterclasses: at Dartington, Tanglewood, Aspen, Acanthes, Wellesley and Apeldoorn. He was a finalist in the 1992 BBC Young Musician of the Year Composers’ Award and the 2001 Gaudeamus Music Week, and was featured in Ensemble Aleph’s Second Forum for Composers in 2002/3. His music has been performed throughout the UK, and in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and the US.

Since starting at Manchester he set up Vaganza, the university’s new music ensemble. This ensemble has a number of objectives: to give students the chance to play as wide a range as possible of modern music, to give them a stage to have their own music performed, and to keep us all aware of the breadth of music that is being written these days. The ensemble is constantly expanding, and we’ve already played some very ambitious music including Stockhausen’s Kreuzspiel, Birtwistle’s Silbury Air and Crumb’s Ancient Voices of Children.

For more information about Vaganza, please visit www.vaganza.manchester.ac.uk.

For more information about my work at the University of Manchester, please visit www.arts.manchester.ac.uk/subjectareas/music; you can find me if you click on Academic Staff.