Peter McGarr

Peter McGarr (born 28 May 1953) is an English classical composer and teacher, working in the English experimental tradition and inspired by Northern English landscape and culture.

Born in Openshaw, Manchester, and attended Ducie Technical High School for Boys, now Manchester Academy. McGarr studied Music and Dance at Mather College (now part of Manchester University) and is self-taught in composition. For several years he taught steel pan, achieving the Outstanding Performance Award from Music for Youth for his steel band 'Orchestral Steel', appearing in the School Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in 1984 and 1986 He has received the Butterworth Prize for Composition from the Society for the Promotion of New Music and has been nominated for Music Teacher of the Year, the British Composer Awards, the Paul Hamlyn foundation Awards and the Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship. He has led composition workshops at the Edinburgh International Festival and also engaged extensively with musical activities involving the elderly and people with dementia.

McGarr has been influenced by the sounds and culture of the Northern English people and landscape He uses theatre, extended techniques and everyday sounds to 'Sustain rapt melody that seems to scrutinise the tintinnabulations of nature for signs of hope or doom'. His musical style 'Integrates tremolo sounds into a subtle patchwork of changing harmonies.' He follows in a long tradition of British artists and poets who have interpreted the British people and landscape.

He has received performances and commissions from many leading musicians, orchestras and festivals including the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall,BBC Philharmonic, London Sinfonietta (Conductor Pierre Andre Valade)Joanna MacGregor, Ensemble Bash, Three Strange AngelsPassacaglia, oboeworks, Cappella Nova CoMa,Exmoor Singers of LondonThe Crossing (USA) City Chamber Choir Scottish Flute Trio Tempest Flute Trio,Kevin Bowyer Ruth Morley, Sarah Brooke, Emily Andrews, Sarah FieldBrodsky Quartet, Tubalate,Black Dyke Band.

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