Robert Sherlaw Johnson

Robert Sherlaw Johnson (21 May 1932 – 3 November 2000), was a British composer, pianist and music scholar. Sherlaw Johnson was one of that group of post-war British musicians whose work reflected wider European interests in new ideas, techniques and aesthetics. While his work and influence were wide-ranging, he is particularly noted for his advocacy and performance of the music of Olivier Messiaen.

Sherlaw Johnson was born in Sunderland. He was educated at Gosforth Grammar School in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, at King's College, Durham, and at the Royal Academy of Music, London, where he was the recipient of a Charles Black award. He used this to travel to Paris, where he studied piano with Jacques Février and composition with Nadia Boulanger, and attended Olivier Messiaen’s classes at the Conservatoire de Paris. In 1971 he was awarded the degree of DMus by the University of Leeds for a doctoral thesis on Messiaen's use of birdsong and in 1984 was elected to a Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Music. He also received a DMus from Oxford in 1990 in recognition of his work as a composer.

Sherlaw Johnson taught at the University of Leeds (1961-3), Bradford Girls' Grammar School (1963-5), the University of York (1965–70) and Oxford University (1970–1999), where he was music Fellow at Worcester College. In 1985 he was visiting professor of composition at the Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester. Notable pupils include Stephen Oliver, Charles Bodman Rae, Caroline Rae and Robert Saxton (who succeeded Sherlaw Johnson at Worcester College).

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