Michael finnissy biography

Michael Peter Finnissy (born 17 March 1946) is an English composer, pianist, and pedagogue.
Michael Finnissy was born in Tulse Hill, London in 1946.
Michael Finnissy was born in Tulse Hill, London in 1946 and studied at the Royal College of Music.

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Michael Finnissy

English composer and pianist

Michael Peter Finnissy (born 17 March 1946) is an English composer, pianist, and pedagogue. An immensely prolific composer, his music is "notable for its dramatic urgency and expressive immediacy".

Although he rejects the label, he is often regarded as the foremost composer of the New Complexity movement.

Biography

Early life

Michael Finnissy was born at 77 Claverdale Road in Tulse Hill, London at roughly two in the morning on 17 March 1946 to Rita Isolene (née Parsonson) and George Norman Finnissy.^[2] His father was employed at the London City Council.

When he was four, he received his first piano lessons from his great aunt Rose Louise (Rosie) Hopwood, soon after writing his first compositions,

He attended Hawes Down Infant and Junior schools, Bromley Technical High School, and Beckenham and Penge Grammar School, and excelled in graphic art, mathematics, and English literature.

Student years

Finnissy received the William Hurlstone composition prize at the Croydon Music Festival, a

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Who or what were the most significant influences on your musical life and career as a composer?

In chronological order: (age 4) Polish folk-music from my Polish godfather; (age 11 – 12) Erik Satie and Charles Ives (via radio and Antony Hopkins ‘Talking about Music’); (teens) Varèse, Bartók, Schoenberg (from local libraries). I don’t come from a ‘musical family’, so all this is untrained, intuitive and serendipitous. I studied Art at school and particularly admired Hokusai, David Hockney and Robert Rauschenberg. My father was a photographer, working for the London County Council (later the GLC).

What have been the greatest challenges/frustrations of your career so far?

Ridding myself of the notion that it was possible to have a ‘CAREER’ as a composer. I just loved writing music, and wanted to do it as well as I could. Seriously and passionately. This then, is a vocation – or a hobby. Or maybe an obsession. I was lucky enough to be very well taught – by Bernard Stevens at the Royal College of Music. Until I was 45 I scraped by, coaching, playing the piano, a

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Michael Finnissy

Born in London’s Tulse Hill in 1946, Michael Finnissy began composing very early in life. Formal study at the Royal College of Music in London with Bernard Stevens and Humphrey Searle (composition) and Edwin Benbow and Ian Lake (piano) was followed by study in Italy with Roman Vlad.

His role as teacher has encompassed the Dartington International Summer School, Winchester College, the junior department at the Royal College of Music, Chelsea College of Art and many universities as guest lecturer, then moving to Sussex University as a Research Fellow, and to the Royal Academy of Music.

As composer, he ha been recognised in numerous festivals, including Huddersfield and Almeida. His music is increasingly receiving the attention of broadcasters and record companies, including NMC, BML and ETC as well as Divine Art and the numerous releases in the Metier Finnissy series.

In 1990 Finnissy was appointed President of the International Society of Contemporary Music. He was re-elected in 1993, and in 1998 was made an honorary member of the ISCM. In 1999 he was app