Born in Bicester in 1931, the English composer Anthony Hedges wrote his first composition at the age of six and two years later was performing locally as a pianist. He studied music at Keble College, Oxford and spent five years as a lecturer at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music. During this time his Comedy Overture won success in a Scottish Arts Council competition. In 1962 he moved to Hull University, where he became Reader in Composition until his retirement in 1995. In 1972 he was elected Chairman of the Composers’ Guild of Great Britain and served as Joint Chairman in 1973. Anthony Hedges is a prolific and versatile composer, writing music, often in response to commissions, in a variety of genres, from opera to solo instrumental works. He has written widely for children and amateurs, with a quantity of light music that has won wide popularity and music for films, the theatre and television. With some three hundred broadcasts both at home and abroad, his works have been performed by many British orchestras and heard throughout the world. In 1991 he was the featured composer in the Riga Festival of British Music and Film and returned to Latvia in 1992 to conduct performances of his Christmas cantata I sing the birth.

Discography