Edmund Finnis

Edmund Finnis (born 1984[1])[2] is a British composer of classical and electronic music. His works have been commissioned and performed by orchestras and ensembles including the Britten Sinfonia, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, London Sinfonietta, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; the pianist Clare Hammond and the clarinettist Mark Simpson. He was recipient of a Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award in 2012 and is currently a Professor of Composition at the Royal Academy of Music, where his notable students have included William Marsey and Robin Haigh.[3][4]

Early life

Finnis was born in Oxford, where, as a child, he was a choirboy at New College.[2] Finnis went on to study composition with teachers including Julian Anderson, Paul Newland and Rozalie Hirs.[5] He received a Leonard Bernstein Fellowship to study at Tanglewood and completed a doctorate at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama on the subject of distortion in acoustic instrumental music.[6] Finnis also worked as an amanuensis for the composer Jonathan Harvey.[4]

Career

Finnis worked with friend Orlando Higginbottom as part of the latter's dance-pop music act, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs,[7] contributing as co-writer to an album, Trouble released in 2012.[8]

From 2013-16 Finnis was composer-in-association with the London Contemporary Orchestra.[9] They commissioned and premiered several of Finnis' works, including Across White Air for solo cello with reverb, Between Rain for string orchestra, and the electronic piece Colour Field Painting.[2]

Finnis also has a significant association with elderly new music ensemble the London Sinfonietta who have performed, toured and recorded six of his works, including three that they commissioned: Veneer, Unfolds and Seeing is Flux.[10]

Finnis' duo piece for violin and viola, Brother was released as an EP in 2019, on NOMAD records, curated by the band Radiohead's guitarist Jonny Greenwood, who has expressed an enthusiasm for Finnis' work.[11] An album of Finnis' music, The Air, Turning, was also released in February 2019 on NMC Recordings.[1]

Several works by Finnis form the soundtrack to the Icelandic film, Hvítur, Hvítur Dagur ("A White, White Day") which premiered at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival.[12]

Finnis has also contributed string arrangements to albums Goddess (2014)[13] The Altar (2016)[14] by the singer-songwriter Banks.

References
  1. "Review". Gramophone. Retrieved 2020-07-27.
  2. Hewett, Ivan (2014-08-20). "Edmund Finnis - New Music". ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2020-07-27.
  3. Bloomfield, Stephen (2017-08-17). "Profile: Edmund Finnis". British Council Music. Retrieved 2020-07-27.
  4. "Edmund Finnis". Royal Academy of Music. Retrieved 2020-07-27.
  5. "Parallel Colour". Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. Retrieved 2020-07-27.
  6. "Edmund Finnis | Four Duets". Rhinegold. 2012-12-01. Retrieved 2020-07-27.
  7. Richard, Clayton (2 June 2012). "Dubstep diplodocus". Financial Times. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  8. "Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs - Trouble". Discogs. Retrieved 2020-07-27.
  9. "Edmund Finnis appointed LCO's new Composer-in-Association". London Contemporary Orchestra. 2013-04-26. Retrieved 2020-07-27.
  10. "Edmund Finnis". London Sinfonietta. Retrieved 2020-07-27.
  11. Male, Andrew (2019-10-09). "Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood: 'Instead of cocaine, hook me up with a recorder group!'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-07-27.
  12. Debruge, Peter (2020-04-05). "'A White, White Day': Film Review". Variety. Retrieved 2020-07-27.
  13. "BANKS (7) - Goddess". Discogs (in French). Retrieved 2020-07-27.
  14. "BANKS (7) - The Altar". Discogs (in French). Retrieved 2020-07-27.
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