1934 1940 1943 Easter: visited in Lytham Hospital, following a burst appendix, by the widely known naturalist Romany [G. Bramwell Evens] 1948 1949 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021CHRONOLGY
Born 15 November, Lytham St. Annes, Lancashire
Son of Frank Dickinson, pioneering contact lens specialist, and Muriel Porter, dramatic recitalist
Meriel Dickinson born 8 April. Peter starts piano lessons with Miss Constance Haslam, Lytham
Music scholarship to The Leys School, Cambridge, under Director of Music, Hugh Davis
One year with family in South Africa
Soloist in Handel Organ Concerto in Bb at The Leys. Becomes a Queen's Scout
Soloist in Bach Piano Concerto in D minor at The Leys
ARCM and LRAM (piano performer’s) diplomas under Miss Constance Haslam
ARCO diploma (Sawyer Prize).Awarded five prizes at Speech Day
Goes up to Cambridge as Phillips Organ Scholar of Queens’ College to read Music: becomes a pupil of Philip Radcliffe. Gives regular organ recitals
Compositions include organ works: Postlude on Adeste Fideles; A Cambridge Postlude; Prelude (MS) and Three Preludes on Hymn-Tunes by Orlando Gibbons (MS). [All recorded by Jennifer Bate in 2009]. Chamber music performances in Cambridge include violin and piano recitals with Goh Heng Leong. Soloist in Mendelsohn's Piano Concerto No.1 at Queens' May Week concert
FRCO diploma; John Stewart of Rannoch Scholar; Sonatina for flute [or recorder later] & piano
Awarded BA/MA degree in music. Shows compositions to Lennox Berkeley
Four W. H. Auden Songs (1956) performed for the poet at Cambridge and at the Wigmore Hall in an SPNM concert; Sonatina for flute and piano, Wigmore Hall, SPNM. Broadcasts as an organist for BBC Radio 3. Teaches Music and English in Hampshire
Awarded Rotary Foundation Fellowship as a graduate student at the Juilliard School, New York.
Pupil of Bernard Wagenaar in composition, graded excellent: courses in English and American literature at Columbia University. Lived at International House, 500 Riverside Drive, New York
Variations for piano (1957) made into ballet Vitalitas by leading Mexican choreographer Gloria Contreras [hence Vitalitas Variations] regularly performed in Mexico City for many years. Scored for full orchestra (now withdrawn). Five Blake Songs performed at Juilliard; also String Quartet No. 1; Meditation on 'Murder in the Catheral'; Juilliard Dances performed with ballet; and Music for Brass. All-Dickinson concert at International House, Riverside Drive, on 3 May. Freelance work on returning to New York, including pianist for New York City Ballet with Balanchine. Reviewing for Musical Courier and the Musical Times. Donald Reeves played Meditation on Murder in the Cathedral in Beirut, Lebanon
Returns to the USA as Lecturer at Fairleigh Dickinson University, New Jersey, teaching Music and English at Teaneck and Rutherford, and as organist of Hillside Presbyterian Church, Orange, NJ. String Quartet No 1 and A Dylan Thomas Song Cycle performed in Composers Forum series, New York. Four Gerard Manley Hopkins Poems for choir and organ commissioned by St. Matthews, Northampton. Runs a concert series at Rutherford, NJ: meets Curtis Thomas and William Carlos Williams, living locally. Organ recital for BBC Radio 3 includes Dieu parmi nous by Messiaen, 9 June
Premiere of Sonata for violin and piano given by Dinos Constantinides and the composer in a programme at Carnegie Recital Hall. US premiere of Four W. H. Auden Songs in New York (Louise Patterson) in a snowstorm that closed Manhattan for three days. Returns to England: Assistant Director of Music at Hurstpierpoint College. Short career as Sunday painter: abstracts later used as CD covers for SongCycles; Orchestral Works; Peter Dickinson: Words and Music; Translations CD
Accompanist at Dartington Summer School: masterclasses of Maggie Teyte and Yehudi Menuhin. Lectureship at the College of St Mark and St John, Chelsea, under Bernarr Rainbow (Senior Lecturer 1964). Active in new music for schools. Premiere of Music for Oboe and Chamber Organ (Leon Goossens and Susi Jeans)
Monologue premiered by London String Players under Roger Norrington; performance in Athens under Stelios Kafandavig
Marries Bridget Jane Tomkinson: two sons, Jasper and Francis, born in 1968, 1971
Musical drama, The Judas Tree (Thomas Blackburn), produced at the College of St Mark & St John for three nights and in the fringe of the Edinburgh Festival (September 6-11). Later at Liverpool and Southwark cathedrals and for three nights in Holy Week in Washington DC (1967 - now on CD), seen each time by 3000 people. An e.e.cummings Song Cycle, premiered at Cheltenham by Meriel Dickinson and John McCabe (1966). Contributions to Anglican Hymn Book Nos. 251, 259, 587. First article on Peter Dickinson for The Musical Times – by Roger Norrington
Moves to Birmingham University as Staff Tutor in Music in the Extramural Department. Regular BBC performances increase: first broadcast talk for Music Magazine for the Satie centenary. First broadcast work - Elegy for counter-tenor, cello and harpsichord (Owen Wynne). Satie Centenary Concert at the College of St Mark and St John (Jane Manning, Colin Tilney and Peter Dickinson). Morton Feldman rehearses students in his music: his first presentation in London
Gives premiere of Paraphrase 1 at Organ Week in Pershore Abbey. Begins recitals with Meriel Dickinson. Working on opera to libretto from John Heath-Stubbs - never completed but extracts used for several works. Founding member of Music Board of the Council for National Academic Awards
Conducts Martin of Tours in Lichfield Cathedral. Paraphrase 2 premiered at the Barber Institute, Birmingham University, by John McCabe. First performance of The Dry Heart by the University Motet Choir/John Joubert, at the Barber Institute. Three Pieces for Four Groups commissioned by the BBC for Music Session Two schools programmes Summer Term
Outcry, a cycle of nature poems commissioned by Coventry Philharmonic Society, is premiered with Meriel Dickinson (mezzo) and the Coventry Philharmonic Choir under the composer: inadequate performance. The King's Singers perform Mark and John at St John's, Smith Square. Presents series of visiting composers with performances at the University and the Birmingham and Midland Institute. [Lennox Berkeley, Alan Rawsthorne, Malcolm Williamson, Thea Musgrave, Richard Rodney Bennett, Egon Wellsez and Cornelius Cardew]. Director of a London music publishing firm - to 1972
Moves back to London; part-time at Birmingham University. Destroyed some early manuscripts including Quintet for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and harpsichord; Prelude and Fugue for two pianos; both performed at Cambridge University Musical Club; Rhapsody for piano (later featured in Piano Concerto) and Capriccio for piano (later reconstructed as Quartet Rag). Performing career as accompanist to Meriel Dickinson develops internationally, especially A Satie Entertainment, given at many festivals and later recorded on LP and later reissued on CD. UK premieres of Satie's songs and piano music recently published. Regular recitals and talks for the BBC. Lectures at the Royal Academy of Music. Orchestral Transformations:Homage to Satie [later called Satie Transformations: recorded in 2015] commissioned by the Feeney Trust, premiered at the Cheltenham Festival by the CBSO/ Meredith Davies, and at Birmingham Town Hall/Maurice Handford. Winter Afternoons (Emily Dickinson) premiered by the King’s Singers at the Queen Elizabeth Hall; basis of a film by William Fitzwater on BBC2 (16 July 1972) produced by John Amis. Visiting composer at the Dartington Summer School. Lecture at the Gulbenkian Festival, Lisbon - on Penderecki. Outcry at Bishop's Stortford Musical Association with Meriel Dickinson, under Ted Smith
Premiere of Translations by David Munrow, Christopher Hogwood and Oliver Brooks. Organ Concerto premiered by Simon Preston and the CBSO under Louis Fremaux at the Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester Cathedral; second performance with Christopher Robinson, Town Hall, Birmingham. First visit, with Philip Lane, to Faringdon House, owned by Robert Heber-Percy, Lord Berners' heir. Settings and Readings of E. E. Cummings, with Meriel Dickinson, including An E. E. Cummings Song Cycle in the Purcell Room. Article on Peter Dickinson in the Musical Times (August) by Anthony Payne. Interviewed for Pied Piper with David Munrow, BBC Radio 3, 5 November, Visirtng composer at the Dartington Summer School of Music
1972
David Munrow and colleagues repeat Translations in the Purcell Room. Premiere of Three Comic Songs (Auden); later broadcast by Ian and Jennifer Partridge; recorded by Martyn Hill and the composer. Last organ recital for BBC Radio 3, Great Hall, Birmingham University, includes Gibbons, pieces on Adeste Fideles by Ives and Dickinson, and Satie's Twelve Chorales, probably a premiere for organ. Peter Dickinson introduces a programme of his own music on BBC Radio 3, including first broadcasts of motets John, Mark with The King's Singers, and Paraphrase I & II, Simon Preston & Malcolm Troup. All-Satie programme with Meriel, called Sports & Diversions, at the Aldeburgh Festival, Concert of music by Lord Berners, with Sir John Betjeman. lresented by the Park Labe Group with the BBC
Recorder Music, with tape playback, premiered at the Wigmore Hall by David Munrow; later recorded. Surrealist Landscape (Lord Berners), with tape playback, premiered at the Purcell Room by David Ross and Ingrid Surgenor; later recorded by Meriel and Peter Dickinson
Moves to Keele with family, as first Professor of Music. Music Department opened by Sir Lennox Berkeley on 12 December. Invited to USA to take part in the Charles Ives Centennial Festival Conference in New York and New Haven: devises BBC 2 TV film 'Who was Charles Ives?' produced by Kenneth Corden, with Meriel Dickinson and the Ives Choir of Keele University and broadcast on 30 October. Lust (in series of Seven Deadly Sins) premiered by The King’s Singers at Cheltenham. Begins to record with Meriel Dickinson, Argo/Decca, Unicorn etc. Two performances of The Dry Heart with introductions for BBC Radio 3, with the BBC Northern Singers/Stephen Wilkinson
String Quartet No. 2 (with tape playback) premiered by Alberni Quartet; later broadcast. Late Afternoon in November (Dickinson) a BBC commission for BBC Northern Singers premiered under Stephen Wilkinson. Started Centre for American Music programme, including post-graduate MA, within the Music Department at Keele, with American grants for the library and staff: set up the Department's Electronic and Recording Studio, supported by the Leverhulme Trust with Tim Souster as Fellow. Recitals with Meriel Dickinson at Mozart-Sall, Vienna; Castletown, Ireland; MacRobert Centre, Scotland; Aarhus, Denmark, etc; with Sarah Francis at KRO, Holland
A Satie Entertainment with Meriel Dickinson released on Unicorn. Concerts with the Ives Choir. Recitals with Meriel Dickinson for the American Bicentennial. Copland visits Keele. Premiere of Quartet No. 2 by the Alberni Quartet at Harlow. First American Music Conference at Keele, in collaboration with the BBC. Served on enquiry into the training of musicians sponsored by the Gulbenkian Foundation, published 1978
Schubert in Blue, jazz parodies of Schubert’s Shakespeare settings, premiered by Meriel Dickinson and Christine Croshaw at the Wigmore Hall (published in Songs in Blue). Invited to give a paper on British work in American music at the IMSC Conference in Berkeley, California. A Portrait of Lord Berners, with others including Meriel Dickinson, released on Unicorn LP, later on Heritage (2016). Fanfares & Elegies for organ and brass in Plymouth Music Series, Minnesota. Aria for horn, oboe, clarinet and bassoon written for the Inauguration of the Concert Hall of the new Music School at Cambridge University. Organ Concerto at 9th International Organ Festival, St Albans, with Simon Preston & BBCSO/Atherton
An American Anthology, with Meriel Dickinson, LP released on Unicorn. Second American Music Conference at Keele, July. Paper and recital on ragtime for the Royal Musical Asociation, with joint recital. Song cycle Medley by William Brooks, commissioned for Meriel & Peter Dickinson & premiered in Shropshire
Recitals with Meriel Dickinson including Ghent, Belgium; Como, Italy; etc. A Birthday Surprise for Sir Robert Mayer's 100th birthday premiered by the Halle/Elgar Howarth in Manchester. Premiere of Reminiscences with Meriel Dickinson and Music Deco in Camden Festival
Recitals with violinist Ralph Holmes (1937-84). Programmes included Beethoven's Spring Sonata which became the basis of Dickinson's Violin Concerto in memory of Holmes - recordings released on Heritage. Paraphrase I (Jennifer Bate) at the Graz Sommer Orgelkonzerte; the Adelaide Festival, Australia etc. Completes editions of songs and piano music by Lord Berners (Chester Music) with Foreword by John Betjeman
Visits New York to obtain interviews for the BBC R3 documentary about Samuel Barber, producer Arthur Johnson. Meets Philip Larkin at Hull, discussed musical setting of his poems eventually resulting in Larkin's Jazz. Records songs in The Joyce Book with Meriel Dickinson and readings by Prunella Scales for BBC R3. Interviews conducted for BBC Radio 3 documentary on Billy Mayerl, but not broadcast until 1996. Plays Lambert Concerto for piano and nine instruments under Philip Jones at Keele in the presence of Princess Margaret. Plays the organ (uncredited) - music by Brahms and Gordon Crosse - in David Rudkin's Artemis 81 directed by Alastair Read for BBC TV. Invited to become a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
Visits the US to lecture at Illinois (on Berners); Lawrence, Kansas (on Virgil Thomson in presence of the composer); ISAM, Brooklyn (on Billy Mayerl). Visits Stockholm for premiere of The Unicorns (John Heath-Stubbs), for voice and brass, with Elisabeth Söderström and Solna Brass under Lars-Gunnar Bjorklund, who later recorded it; played Berners piano solos in the same programme
Visits Sir Harold Acton in Florence in connection with BBC Radio 3 documentary on Berners, producer Arthur Johnson. Berners centenary concert at the Wigmore Hall, with Meriel and Timothy West, sold out and repeated at the Purcell Room. Lecture recital on Berners with Meriel and Peter Dickinson at the Royal Society of Arts. Third American Music Conference at Keele in collaboration with the Sonneck Society (now Society for American Music): papers published in American Music. London premiere of Martin of Tours (Brompton Chamber Choir/Donald Cashmore). UK premiere of The Unicorns (Jane Manning, Fairey Engineering Band/Geoffrey Brand, BBC Radio 3, Manchester
Moves back to London: made Emeritus Professor of Keele University. Many features and reviews for BBC Radio 3 in this period and University examining. Premieres: Mass of the Apocalypse at St. James’, Piccadilly, for the 300th anniversary of the church; Piano Concerto with Howard Shelley and the BBC PO under Edward Downes at Cheltenham Festival (later revised). Recitals with oboist Sarah Francis, including KRO, Amsterdam. They give the first performance of Howells' Oboe & Piano Sonata (1942) at Cheltenham, then London, BBC Radio 3 and Hyperion recording (now on Heritage): then edit the edition for Novello. Makes band only version of The Unicorns. Joins Board of Trinity College of Music until 1998. BBC Radio 3 documentary on Lord Berners gains Sony Radio Awards 1984 for Best Documentary/Features Programme
Premieres: Stevie’s Tunes (Stevie Smith) by Meriel Dickinson and the composer, Purcell Room, London in Stevie Smith: a Portrait with Betty Mulcahy(speaker; American Trio [originally Hymns, Rags & Blues] by the Verdehr Trio, Michigan State University, widely performed internationally and recorded on Cristal (1995). Premieres of some of the Rags, Blues and Parodies in a recital with Meriel Dickinson at the British Music Information Centre; also first broadcasts in two At the Piano programmes on BBC Radio 2. Recital of Satie's piano music and songs with Kirsten Buhl Moller for Danmarks Radio, Copenhagen
American and Mexican lecture-recital tour: includes premiere in New York of Blue Rose Variations (organ) by Jennifer Bate; lectures at CCNY and Patterson College, NJ; radio interviews in New York and Philadelphia; premiere of A Memory of David Munrow at The Cloisters in New York; seminar at The Juilliard School; lectures at the Denver conference of the Society for American Music and at the College of Music; invited by British Council for 25th season of ballet Vitalitas in Mexico City and to give piano recitals. Three programmes Homenaje a Peter Dickinson given with performances of Gloria Contreras' ballet Vitalitas. Piano Concerto at the Proms. Premiere of London Rags for London Brass. EMI records Piano Concerto and Organ Concerto on LP, cassette, and CD (now on Albany and Heritage). Joins Richard Baker and Friends, Mediterranean P. & O. cruise: premiere of Lullaby from 'The Unicorns' for clarinet & piano with Jack Brymer. 'Invisible as Music', based on Emily Dickinson's writings and choices of music, for BBC Radio 3 Drama. Chairs Crafts Council exhibition of instruments marking the tenth anniversary of David Munrow's death
Premiere of Violin Concerto, BBC commission, by Ernst Kovacic and BBC PO/Bryden Thomson, Leeds Town Hall. Visited New York in connection with BBC R3 documentary on John Cage, producer Tony Cheevers. Gave 20th anniversary programme with Meriel Dickinson at the British Music Information Centre. Lecture 'From Cage to Concerto' at Contemporary Music Society, Oxford. BBC Radio 3 Drama documentary on Ruth Pitter [repeated with introduction 1992]. Presents Meet the Clavichord on Friday Night is Music Night, BBC Radio 2
Melvyn Bragg’s South Bank Show TV documentary about Dickinson and his work, screened on 13 March. Merseyside Echoes premiered by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic/Barry Wordsworth: three performances in a week. 1st London performance of Outcry in Queen Elizabeth Hall with London Concert Choir under Nicholas Cleobury, followed by recording. Mass of the Apocalypse at St James', Piccadilly, followed by recording under Ivor Bolton. Auden Studies for oboe and piano premiered by Sarah Francis with the composer. Premiere of Jigsaws with East of England Orchestra at Derby (later withdrawn). Becomes a founding trustee of the Berners Trust. Devised four BBC Radio 3 programmes for Lennox Berkeley's 85th birthday. Gives first complete performance of James Joyce's Chamber Music set by Geoffrey Molineux Palmer, BBC Radio 3, with Martyn Hill (now on CD). Mary King & Andrew Ball give 1st broadcast of Stevie's Tunes
21st anniversary recital with Meriel Dickinson, presented by the Park Lane Group at the Purcell Room. Premiere of Larkin’s Jazz (Philip Larkin) with Henry Herford (speaker/baritone) and the Nash Ensemble under Lionel Friend at Keele University (now on CD).The Music of Lennox Berkeley published (1st ed. Thames). Becomes a regular contributor to Gramophone for almost thirty years. Presented a BBC Radio 3 programme of American organ music for 4 July including the first broadcast of Blue Rose Variations by David Titterington. Records clavichord recitals for BBC Radio 3, later on CD as Blue Clavichord. Many performances of Threnody for cello & piano in Australia and NZ (Penelope Lynex). Mid-Pennine Arts tour of solo piano recitals. Plays piano solos on BBC Radio 2. Commissioned by BBC to write and perform a piano rag based on the opening phrases of songs by Irving Berlin. 1st broadcast of Sonatas for Piano by Eric Parkin (now on CD). Invited to become Senior Research Fellow, Music Department, King's College, London.
Outcry with Kate Woolveridge and Huntingdon Philharmonic/Christopher Brown at St Ives. Visited the USA - played Cage's Three Gertrude Stein Songs as piano pieces at a reception in New York including the composer; gave lectures and classes at Bowdoin College, Maine; visited Yale. Records Satie solo piano works, initially for Unicorn, later many reissues (4m hits on Spotify by 2022). Recital with Meriel Dickinson at Ysbreker, Amsterdam. Appears on The Late Show, BBC TV, playing & discussing Copland. Keith Jarvis plays five organ works for BBC Radio 3
Appointed to first chair at Goldsmiths College, University of London
London premiere, Merseyside Echoes Goldsmiths' Sinfonia/John Jansson, Goldsmiths' College.
Awarded DMus (London University). Chaired Research Assessment Panel for Music in UK universities, recognising musicology, composition and performance on an equal basis. Premiere of Cellars Clough Duo for two guitars (Hand/Dupre duo) at St John's, Smith Square. American premieres of Music for Oboe and Chamber Organ, and Violin and Piano Sonata at Louisiana State University. BBC Radio 3 documentary on Lennox Berkeley [all interviews later in Lennox Berkeley and Friends]. Surrealist Landscape at the Purcell Room, Jonathan Kenny & Christopher Ross. Invited to give lecture for the Finnish Institute Conference [in Peter Dickinson: Words and Music]
Lecture at the Royal Academy, London: 'America Exported: Composers from Ives and Copland to Cage and Feldman'; repeated at Goldsmiths. Recital of five Dickinson song cycles presented by students of Trinity College of Music at Hinde Street Church; Fanfares & Elegies for organ and brass at the Royal College of Music; Tiananmen 1989 given twice by the London Concert Choir/Gregory Rose at St James's, Piccadilly - also at the Welsh College of Music & Drama/Nigel Perrin; Paraphrase I for organ (Jennifer Bate) at the Wien Klangbogen Festival, Vienna
Peter Dickinson at 60, presented by the Park Lane Group, in the Purcell Room with Meriel Dickinson, Sarah Francis, Jack Brymer, Eric Parkin, including premieres of Summoned by Mother (Betjeman) (1990) with Meriel Dickinson and Lucy Wakeford (harp), and Swansongs (1992) with Penelope Lynex (cello) and Alexander Wells (piano), following premiere in Hamilton, NZ and on tour in Australia. Invited to give first lecture tour of Switzerland for the Swiss-British Society: 'Lennox Berkeley and his Pupils - Nicholas Maw, Richard Rodney Bennett, John Tavener, Michael Berkeley and Peter Dickinson'. Invited by Yamaha-Kemble to visit Japan for the Yamaha Piano Study Tour. Establishment of the Peter Dickinson Archive at Lancaster University (since relocated to Senate House, University of London). London premiere, Larkin's Jazz with Goldsmiths' Contemporary Music Ensemble/Edward Gregson, Blackheath Halls. Dickinson played Lambert's Concerto for Piano and Nine Instruments in the same programme. Premiere of Suffolk Variations by Richard Hand (guitar) at the British Music Information Centre
Second lecture-recital tour for the Swiss-British Society: 'James Joyce's Chamber Music - Geoffrey Molineux Palmer rediscovered'. Lectures in Berne, Basel and Zurich, at the James Joyce Foundation, illustrated with recordings of Palmer's settings from BBC Radio 3 broadcast with Martyn Hill (now on CD). Again chaired Research Assessment Panel for Music. The Music Department at Goldsmiths is awarded Excellent for Teaching Quality and Grade 5 for research. BBC Radio 3 documentary on Billy Mayerl, begun in 1982, finally broadcast. Established the Bernarr Rainbow Trust (now the Rainbow Dickinson Trust) with Rainbow (1914-98)
Leaves Goldsmiths as Emeritus Professor, University of London. Head of Music, Institute of United States Studies, University of London, until 2003, and runs a graduate course in American music. Gillian Weir plays Fanfares and Elegies at the Bad Homburg Organ Festival. Emma Murphy plays Recorder Music at Presentation Day of Trinity College of Music in St John's, Smith Square
Visits Cork Festival for performance of Three Carols by Cantairi oga atha cliath/Brian O'Dubhghaill
Awarded: Hon DMus (Keele); and Hon Fellowship, Trinity College of Music. Gives premiere of Eight Very Easy Piano Pieces at British Music Information Centre in a recital to mark the 60th birthday of Elliott Schwartz
Three CDs of Dickinson’s music released on Albany Records. Marigold: the Music of Billy Mayerl published (OUP). Paper on Copland at Toronto 2000: Musical Intersections (Society for American Music section); lectures and seminars at Michigan State University; visits Chicago; attends recital with American Trio played by the Verdehr Trio at the Phillips Collection, Washington; lecture on Bernarr Rainbow at the 4th International Seminar in Music Education at the Institute of Education, University of London
Invited to give 2nd T. S. Eliot Lecture at Washington University, St Louis – ‘From St Louis to Europe: the International Influence of Scott Joplin’s Ragtime Rhythms’. Also given at University of Illinois, Champagne-Urbana; Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge; and the Institute of United States Studies, University of London
Copland Connotations: Studies and Interviews published (ed. Boydell). Attends book launch at Steinway Hall, New York, presented by Copland House; (again in London in a Copland programme at the Institute of United States Studies); lectures at Vassar College. Devised BBC Radio 3 Composer of the Week on Billy Mayerl for his centenary. Hakan Martinsson records Postlude on Adeste Fideles on 'It's Christmas Time: Famous Organ Works for Christmas', Stockholm. Three Comic Songs with Hirchisa Tsuji and Akjane Nakanishi, Tokyo Opera City Recital Hall
Invited to give lecture on Larkin’s Jazz to the Philip Larkin Society at Hull; also at Senate House, London University, jointly for the Institute of English Studies and United States Studies [In Words and Music]. Lecture to the British Music Society on Lennox Berkeley for his centenary. The Music of Lennox Berkeley published (new, much enlarged edition, Boydell)
To Boston - post-grad seminar at Harvard; lecture at Northeastern; visits Dartmouth College; lectures at Bowdoin College, Maine, for Music and English Departments. Premiere of Bach in Blue for piano at the Cheltenham Festival and on BBC Radio 3 by Llyr Williams
Featured composer at Dartington Summer School with works based on W. H. Auden - eight songs and Auden Studies for oboe and piano. Invited to Michigan State University for lectures, master-classes and performances including Larkin’s Jazz, London Rags and American Trio. Invited by the Samuel Barber Foundation to give lecture ‘In Quest of Samuel Barber’ at First Presbyterian Church, West Chester: played Canzonetta for oboe as solo piano piece (now on CD); interviewed Orlando Cole for book Samuel Barber Remembered. Fourth CD on Albany Records: Pianos, Voices & Brass
CageTalk: Dialogues with and about John Cage published (ed. University of Rochester Press). Chosen as Book of the Year by ForeWord Magazine, Bronze 2006 Music
Gave Eccles Centre Lecture at the British Association of American Studies Conference, Edinburgh: ‘John Cage was all the Rage’ – repeated at the British Library and published by the Eccles Centre. Lord Berners: Composer, Writer, Painter published (Boydell). Lectures or lecture-recitals on Berners at the Cheltenham Festival, Cheltenham Literary Festival (readings by Timothy West: Alan Hollinghurst also on panel), Dartington Summer School, and the British Library
75th birthday year marked by the release of two CDs on Naxos (Complete Solo Organ Works performed by Jennifer Bate; Mass of the Apocalypse, Larkin’s Jazz etc. performed by the Nash Ensemble with John Harle and Henry Herford as baritone/speaker). Performances include Tiananmen 1989 by Oxford chamber choir Commotio/Matthew Berry; Blue Rose Variations performed by David Titterington at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, London; organ works featured in Fourth Annual Festival of New Organ Music, London, played by Jennifer Bate; and American Trio played by the Zalas Trio at the Wigmore Hall, London. Visited Boston, invited to Ives Vocal Marathon at Wesleyan University, Connecticut: participant with paper on Ives song editions. Invited to become a Patron of the Lennox Berkeley Society. 'The Eclecticism of Peter Dickinson assessed through investigation of selected works' by Anna Perry, BA (Hons) thesis, first class, University of Lancaster
Samuel Barber Remembered: A Centenary Tribute published by Rochester University Press; Lord Berners: Composer, Writer, Painter reissued in paperback; edition of Complete Piano Duets by Lord Berners published by Chester Music. Bernarr Rainbow on Music: Memoirs and Selected Writings published (Ed. Boydell Press). A Celebration Trio for violin, clarinet and piano, commissioned by the Verdehr Trio and performed several times in the US, also in Austria, Germany, France and in London, recorded for Cristal, released in 2017
Revised version of String Quartet No. 1 premiered by the Kreutzer Quartet in London and York (now on CD). Third CD out on Naxos, Peter Dickinson Piano Music played by the composer - reissues with first recordings of Paraphrase II and Vitalitas Variations. Visit to Paris to obtain copies of Lennox Berkeley's letters to Nadia Boulanger from the Bibliotheque Nationale; also visit to Tours. Grandson, Arthur Edward born 4 November
Reissues of recordings with Meriel Dickinson out on CD with Heritage - American Song and British Song; also A Tribute to Ralph Holmes, including works from the 1981 BBC Radio Stoke recording with Holmes and Dickinson at Keele University. Lennox Berkeley and Friends: Writings, Letters and Interviews published by Boydell, nominated for Association for Recorded Sound Collections Award for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research (USA). Keynote lecture 'Getting Somewhere' at John Cage Festival, University of York. Trio version of Bach in Blue for Verdehr Trio
Fourth CD with Heritage: Blue Clavchord - includes Bach in Blue (trio)/20th Century Clavichord/Harpsichord and Recorder Music with Peter Dickinson, the Verdehr Trio, Jane Chapman (harpsichord), John Turner (recorder). Edited Music Education in Crisis: the Bernarr Rainbow Lectures and other Assessments published by Boydell. Visited the Isle de Re: met James Joyce's grandson
The Judas Tree, a Musical Drama of Judas Iscariot, with Thomas Blackburn, historic recording from 1967 Washington Cathedral production released on Heritage CD. Violin Concerto recorded by Chloe Hanslip and the BBC Welsh National Orchestra under Clark Rundell on 2/3 April. Merseyside Echoes also recorded by BBC National Orchestra of Wales/Clark Rundell for broadcast and CD release on Heritage along with reissue of the two keyboard concertos. CageTalk issued in paperback with new Foreword. Commissioned by the Rawsthorne Trust to make a piano arrangement of Practical Cats with speaker, premiere by Eleanor Bron and Jonathan Rutherford, Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh, 11 October, later recorded; and a piano duet suite premiered by John Wilson and Peter Lawson on 21 April at the Royal Northern College of Music. Launch of eight new Classic Texts for the Rainbow Dickinson Trust at the Institute of Education, University of London, 16 October, to mark Rainbow's centenary. Participant with talk at Alan Rawsthorne Weekend, with three Dickinson works performed at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, 26 October. Peter Dickinson 80th Birthday Concert, Park Lane Group Young Artists, 22 Mansfield Street, London W1, with five Dickinson works on 10 November. Feature articles in Musical Opinion; Music Web International; International Record Review; Gramophone interview; Tempo
Mass of the Apocalypse, Aldeburgh Festival, 14 June, Aldeburgh Voices, percussion and piano from the Mahler Chamber Orchestra/Alexander Chaplin. Six orchestral works recorded by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales/Clark Rundell, September 7 & 8. Fanfares & Elegies for organ and brass performed by Prime Brass/Paul Trepte in Ely Cathedral
Release of seven orchestral works on Heritage CD, three broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in February, others later. Feature article in Classical Music, March issue. Publication of Peter Dickinson: Words and Music [Boydell]. Launch of book [chosen as a Classical Music book of the year, November 2016] and CD held at the Enitharmon Press, London, on March 9, with premiere of Air and Metamorphosis as violin solos by Peter Sheppard Skaerved, later recorded. First public performance of Suite for the Centenary of Lord Berners, BBC Concert Orchestra/Wordsworth, at Snape Maltings, 22 August, and later BBC R3
Last of Four Gerard Manley Hopkins Poems performed during Evensong at Trinity College Chapel, Cambridge, under Stephen Layton, on 26 February. A Celebration Trio released on Cristal by the Verdehr Trio. Complete Auden Songs performed at The Lookout in Aldeburgh by Hiroshi Amako and Yi-Shing Cheng
All-Dickinson concert at Michigan State University on 10 April, with premiere of Lochinvar for speaker, violin and piano (Marc Embree, Walter Verdehr and Elden Little); also London Rags; American Trio; and songs. Unable to go through wife's illness.Translations: Early Chamber Music released on Prima Facie. Feature article by Arnold Whittall in Gramophone (October)
CD of Erik Satie's piano music rates over a million hits on Spotify.
Elegiac Canons for two recorders performed by John Turner & Laura Robinson, William Alwyn Festival.
Songs performed in London by Natalie Johnson-Hyde & Lana Bode; and Mimi Dulton & Dominic Degavina. Premiere of Lullaby for piano by Peter Seivewright at Phuket School of Music, Thailand
Three Pieces for String Quartet premiered online by the Kreutzer Quartet. Release of CD including James Joyce's favourite songs: Chamber Music by Geoffrey Molineux Palmer (Martyn Hill/Peter Dickinson) and The Joyce Book (Meriel & Peter Dickinson) on Heritage. Publication of the score of Palmer's Chamber Music, ed Dickinson (Good Music)
Reissue of A Satie Entertainment (Meriel & Peter Dickinson) on Heritage. Three Pieces for String Quartet at the Alwyn Festival, Southwold, with the Gildas Quartet. Records an easy listening selection of piano music for Somm Records, Lockdown Blues, released in November. Five Forgeries and Lullaby with Mark Bebbington and Irene Loh at St John's, Smith Square. Premiere of Sanctus, Agnus Dei and Gloria in organ versions by Tom Winpenny at Westminster Cathedral, later recorded. Satie's Gymnopedie No. 3 now rates 4 million hits on Spotify
2022
Volume 3 of One Hundred Years of British Song on Somm, with James Gilchrist and Nathan Williamson, includes five Auden songs.
© 2008-24 Estate of Peter Dickinson
