Gerald Cockshott

Gerald Wilfred Cockshott (14 November 1915 – 3 February 1979) was an English composer, librettist, writer and teacher.

Cockshott was born in Bristol and educated at Taunton School and the University of Bristol where he received his BA in English. He was a friend of and influenced by the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams with whom he studied privately. A Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, he primarily composed choral music, much of it influenced by the English folk tradition, but also composed two operas and several instrumental works.

He had originally written the libretto for the chamber opera Apollo and Persephone for Vaughn Williams, but decided to compose the work himself before showing it to him. Vaughn Williams gave the work his blessing and it was premiered in London in 1954 by the Intimate Opera Company. Apollo and Persephone went on to multiple performances in Europe and North America in the ensuing years. His second opera, A Faun in the Forest, for which he also wrote the libretto premiered in 1959 in Westport, Connecticut.

From 1947 to 1964 Cockshott was the senior English master at Whittingehame College, a boarding school for boys in Brighton founded by the British Zionist Jacob Halevy. After leaving Whittingehame, he taught at Ifield Grammar School and later at Froebel College. He was also the founder of the Peter Warlock Society and served as its first chairman from 1963 to 1969. Cockshott died in West Sussex at the age of 63.

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