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  [Herr Brettingham-Smith]   Jolyon Brettingham Smith
Composer - Conductor - Performer
Professor of Music Theory
Author - Broadcaster - Lecturer

Resident in Berlin Spandau:
KronprinzenstraBe 56, 13589 Berlin.

Married to Martina Brettingham Smith (clarinetist);
Children: Gavin, Jolyon, Christopher, Richard, Larissa.

1949 Born 9th. September in Southampton UK
1966 GCE A-Levels (Cranleigh School, Surrey, England)
1966-67 Resident teacher, Dromenagh House (state) school for maladjusted children in North London.
1968 1975 Studies at the Universities of Cambridge (moral sciences), Heidelberg, West-Berlin (musicology and philosophy) and at the Hochschule flir Musik West-Berlin (composition). Main teachers: Derek Bourgeois, Friedhelm Dohl, Ssang Yun
1971 - Membership of "Gruppe Neue Musik Berlin " and the experimental ensemble "No-Set".
1972 First performance "Songs for a Fool on Baile's Strand" at the Berlin Festival.
1973 First prize for Opera "The Death of Cuchulain" at the Nuremberg Festival of Contemporary Music Theatre.
1974-75 Guest conductor Bielefeld Opera House Premise of "Death of Cuchulain"
1975-1980 Lecturer in tusic theory in the department of musicology, Berlin University
1977-1981 Also resident in the Repiblic of Ireland; Director of Music Castlebar, County Mayo.
1978 Berlin Arts Prize
1981"Hohenflug - ein Trummerscherzo" performed before an audience of 12,000 at the opening of the Berlin Festival "The Long Death of Prussia".
1982 Permanent residence in Berlin. Increasing activity as broadcaster on various musical topics. Live programrnes ("Classical Breakfast" etc.)
1983 Visiting Professor of music theory at the Hochschule der Künste Berlin.
1984 Double premiere of opera "The Silence of Lord Chandos" in Brunswick and Berlin (Berlin Festival).
1985 Awarded Prize of the "European Year of Music" by I.C.N.M. and the Federation of German Industry.
Music for the Film "Niemanns Zeit (Berlin Film Festival) Full Professor for music theory at the Hochschule der Künste.
1987 Gala Performance of "Alles Zwei Seiten" for 750 singers, symphony orchestra and brass bands from the U.S.A., France and Great Britain for the opening of the celebrations for the 750th. Jubilee of the founding of Berlin.
1988-91 Dean of the Faculty of Music at the Hochschule der Künste Berlin Founder member of the Institute for New Music.
1991-1995 Director of the Institute for Music Teacher Training.
1996 Completion ofthe opera "Dopplereffekt" ("Red Shift") Head of music programme Uniradio
1997 Director Institute for New Music

 
 

Werkliste (Auswahl):

Music Theatre
"The Death of Cuchulainn (Opera, l act, W.B.Yeats),
"The Silence of Lord Chandos" (Opera, 2 acts, Hoffmannsthal/Georg Quander),
"The Waste Sad Time" (music theatre, based on ideas by T. S. Eliot and Marcel Proust)
"Höhenflug - Otto Lilienthal and Prussia's Dream",
"We are Beggars - that's the Truth" (500 years Martin Luther),
"Red Shift" (based on the book by Alan Garner)

Choir and Orchestra
"Alles zwei Seiten"
"This Worlde's Joie"

Orchestra
"Earth Magic" (Solo flute, chamber group, large orchestra)
"The Golden Apples of the Sun"
"Cassiopeia" (for five orchestral groups)
"A Fantasy in the Life of... " (symphonic variations on themes by the Beatles)
"Approaches to Dun Aengus" (Solo violoncello and large orchestra)

Voice and ensemble
"Songs for a Fool on Baile's Strand"
"Dancing Days"
"Turning Points"
"Two Old Songs"
"Im Aonar Seal "

Chamber music
"O Rise"
"Wind in the Reeds"
"Gyre for a Wind Quintet"
"The Ruins of Timet"
"The Doors of Perception"
"A Very Tonal Fugue"
"Mandrake Roote"
"Ode-the Western Wynde"
"Odi et Amo"
"Empty Skies I-IV"

Film music
"Niemanns Zeit"

Radio drama
"Klänge der Kriege-Töne der Liebe" - ("The Noise of War- the Sound of Love")
Three part radio play (total: 9 hours) on the Crusades.


Published by:
Budde-Verlag (Berlin), Sonoton (Munich), Boosey & Hawkes (Bote &d Bock) (Berlin-London),. Commmercial recordings of works available on the PRO-NOVA lable.

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