Alun Renshaw : Represented Artist
Born 1945 in Leeds, Yorkshire, England, Alun Renshaw left school to study music at Huddersfield College of Music, England, and later composition and conducting at the Northern College of Music, studying composition with Harold Truscott and briefly with Michael Tippett, having won the Northern Composers Competition in 1966.
1970: graduated from London University as a biologist and taught biology in London while actively involved with composition and the contemporary Cockpit Ensemble with Howard Davidson and Malcolm Fox.
1974: appointed Music Adviser to the Inner London Education Department. This was a period that saw the formation of Opus 20, a contemporary music ensemble for young people. During this period Alun Renshaw established a reputation throughout Britain, Europe and Scandinavia as a forward-thinking music educator and contemporary composer of some standing.
1976: set up the first fully contemporary music school curriculum at Islington Green School, London. This period saw workshops and concerts of music specially commissioned by institutions like the Carl Orff Institute, Salzburg, and the ISME conference in Canada.
1978: concert tour workshop of Norway, first performance of Requiem for a Sinking Block of Flats about the problems of high-rise living.
1979: invited by the Queensland Education Department, Brisbane, to be composer-in-residence for 3 months, working in schools, which culminated in Dreamtime.
1980: decided to remain in Australia and gave lectures in Tasmania (Schools and Conservatorium), Ingham, Townsville and Mackay, setting up contemporary music groups.
1980 also saw Alun Renshaw as Lecturer in Experimental Music at the Queensland Conservatorium.
1982: appointed Composer in the Community for the Greater Western Suburbs by the Cultural Department Premier's Department and Australia Council Music Board.
1983: Alun Renshaw became an Australian citizen and was also invited over to Dartington Summer of Music by Peter Maxwell Davies to lecture and perform his own music.
Curriculum vitae provided by the composer — current to 1983