Michael Berkeley

Michael Fitzhardinge Berkeley, Baron Berkeley of Knighton, CBE (born 29 May 1948) is an English composer and broadcaster on music.

One of three sons of the composer Sir Lennox Berkeley, Berkeley was educated at The Oratory School, in Woodcote, and Westminster Cathedral Choir School. He was a chorister at Westminster Cathedral, and he frequently sang in works composed or conducted by his godfather, Benjamin Britten. He studied composition, singing and piano at the Royal Academy of Music. He also played in a rock band, Seeds of Discord. In his twenties, when he went to study with Richard Rodney Bennett, he concentrated on composition.

In 1977 he was awarded the Guinness Prize for Composition. In 1979, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra appointed Berkeley its associate composer. Berkeley was Composer-in-Association with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales from 2000 until 2009. He also acted as Visiting Professor in Composition at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama and was Artistic Director of the Cheltenham Music Festival from 1995 to 2004. In 2002 and 2003 he was international guest curator of chamber music programs at the Sydney Festival, Australia's largest arts festival.

Berkeley was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2012 Birthday Honours for services to music. In February 2013, it was announced that he would be made a life peer and enter the House of Lords as a crossbencher and on 26 March 2013 he was created Baron Berkeley of Knighton, of Knighton in the County of Powys.

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