Gavin Bryars

About the Author

Virginia Anderson, who died unexpectedly in 2021, was born and studied in Southern California and specialised in the study of experimental, minimalist, and free improvisatory music. The Experimental Music Catalogue was founded by her husband, the composer Christopher Hobbs, in 1969 and she and Hobbs created the Journal of Experimental Music Studies within it. Her work is widely published in academic journals. She also played clarinet, specialising in new works for E flat clarinet.

Martin Cotton was particularly involved with contemporary music as a producer at BBC Radio 3 and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He has served on the committees of the SPNM, ISCM British Section, Park Lane Group and British Music Society, amongst others, and is a regular contributor to the BBC Music Magazine.

Mahan Esfahani is a harpsichord soloist, writer, and broadcaster active across the globe in both early and new music. He studied musicology at Stanford University before private studies culminating under the tutelage of the celebrated Czech harpsichordist Zuzana Ruzickova. He recorded Gavin Bryars’ After Handel’s Vesper in 2019 and premiered Bryars’ Harpsichord Concerto in 2023.

Anna Maria Friman is a Swedish singer, well-known as a member of Trio Mediæval. She gained a doctorate at York University on the modern performance of mediaeval music. Among many ensembles, she has performed with the vocal duo Red Byrd, the Estonian NYDD Ensemble and Collegium Vocale Gent.

Clarinettist Roger Heaton is a member of the Gavin Bryars Ensemble. He has played with the London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Modern, Arditti and Kreutzer Quartets among many other leading groups. He regularly contributes to scholarly publications, has recorded CDs of contemporary solo repertory and is Emeritus Professor of Music at Bath Spa University.

Blake Morrison is a Yorkshire-born author who has published extensively in a variety of fiction and non-fiction genres: novels, poetry, memoirs, essays, libretti and plays. He is Professor of Creative and Life Writing at Goldsmiths’ College, University of London, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Brian Morton is a Scottish writer, journalist and former broadcaster specialising in jazz and modern literature. He has worked as a presenter on BBC Radio 3 and other BBC networks. He was co-compiler of The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings, has written extensively on jazz for magazines and has written a biography of Miles Davis.

John Potter records for ECM and sang with both the Hilliard Ensemble and the Gavin Bryars Ensemble. His books include A History of Singing (with Neil Sorrell, Cambridge University Press), Tenor: History of a Voice and Song: a History in 12 Parts (both Yale University Press). He is Reader Emeritus at the University of York.

Audrey Riley has been active as a cellist in contemporary music since the 1980s. She has performed with the Gavin Bryars Ensemble since 2001 and is the dedicatee of Bryars’ Lauda (con sordino) and Tre Laude Dolce. A guest musician with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company (2001-2011), she received her PhD in music performance from De Montfort University in 2021.

Dr Simon Strange is a trombone-playing music producer across a multitude of genres throughout his career. Simon works as a creative academic at Bath Spa University and released his first book, Blank Canvas: art school creativity from punk to new wave, in 2022.

David Wordsworth has at various times been a teacher, music publisher, promoter of composers, pianist, writer on music, and choral conductor. His association with Gavin Bryars goes back some 25 years, to begin with as his publisher, then as the conductor of several of his works, including a number written especially for him.

Leslie East is Editorial Consultant to Kahn & Averill and has contributed editorial support and advice to the publisher on various projects with particular responsibility for the revised edition of James Blades’ Percussion Instruments and their History and Giving Voice to My Music, conversations with composers of choral music.