Lennox Berkeley

Sir Lennox Berkeley was born in Boars Hill, Oxford, in May 1903, into a family of partly French descent. He read modern languages at Merton College, Oxford, before turning to music in his twenties and studying composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris from 1927 to 1932 — a period that gave him both his neoclassical orientation and a lifelong sympathy with French musical thought. He converted to Catholicism in 1928, a decision that informed much of his subsequent sacred output.

His career bridged English and French traditions. He worked at the BBC as a music programme producer from 1942 to 1945, then taught composition at the Royal Academy of Music from 1946 to 1968, where his pupils included Richard Rodney Bennett, John Tavener and Nicholas Maw. His own catalogue runs to four symphonies, four operas (including *Nelson* and *Ruth*), the *Stabat Mater* and *Magnificat*, four string quartets, and a substantial body of solo piano and song repertoire. He had a particular partnership with Benjamin Britten, with whom he co-composed *Mont Juic* (1937).

Berkeley was knighted in 1974 and appointed CBE in 1957. He died in London in December 1989. Music Preserved’s archive includes a range of his orchestral, chamber and sacred work in twentieth-century British performance.