Edward Gregson (born 1945) is a composer of international standing, whose music has been performed, broadcast, and commercially recorded worldwide. He studied composition (with Alan Bush) and piano at the Royal Academy of Music from 1963 - 1967 winning five prizes for composition. Since then he has worked solely to commission and has written orchestral, chamber, instrumental and choral music as well as music for the theatre, film and television.
His commissions have included orchestral music for the English Chamber Orchestra, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the BBC Philharmonic (Clarinet Concerto), the Hallé (Violin Concerto), with performances by many other orchestras and ensembles around the world. His most recent commission was for Manchester Camerata (A Song for Chris — a concerto for cello and chamber orchestra), which was premiered at the 2007 RNCM Manchester International Cello Festival. He is also internationally renowned for his contributions to the wind and brass repertoire.
In 1988 he was nominated for an Ivor Novello Award for his title music for BBC Television’s Young Musician of the Year programmes and in the same year he was commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company to write the music for a major cycle of the Shakespeare history plays. In 2002 a major retrospective of his music was held in Manchester which also coincided with the release of a CD of his orchestral music (including the clarinet and violin concertos) on the Chandos label. A second volume of his concertos (those for trumpet, piano and saxophone) was released in July 2008 on the same label.
He retired from an academic career in music in the summer of 2008, latterly as Principal of the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, a post he held for 12 years. He still serves on a number of important boards relating to music education and the music profession and holds eight honorary Doctorates and Fellowships from English universities and conservatoires.