Oliver was born in Edinburgh in 1977 and grew up in North Berwick. He became a classroom music teacher in Aberdeen and in 2000, he moved to Glasgow, where he studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama with John Maxwell Geddes, gaining a Distinction for his Masters degree in 2002. He finished his PhD in 2006, supervised by Gordon McPherson and has recently written works for the Paragon Ensemble, the National Youth Choir of Scotland, the Hebrides Ensemble, Psappha, the John Currie singers, Symposia, the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland, the New Music Players and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.
In 2002, he received a silver medal from the Worshipful Company of Musicians in London and in 2004 he won the Mendelssohn Scholarship. Over the last few years, he has had works performed in the Glasgow Proms and at festivals in Oxford, Edinburgh, Manchester, Aldeburgh, Cluj-Napoca and Berlin, with several broadcasts in Europe and Asia. Recent endeavours included a 20-minute work for the City Halls in Glasgow, for large choir and the BBCSSO. He is also frequently involved in the creation of music for theatre, teaches at the RSAMD and has recently completed a music test for people with cochlear implants. He is currently writing a comic-book opera for Hampstead Theatre. I also co-direct the new music group, Symposia, in Glasgow and am a member of the Scottish Music Centre (www.scottishmsiccentre.com), where a lot of my scores and recordings are held.
Some of my "easy listening" stuff (as opposed to the "queasy listening stuff) is also held at www.scotchsnap.com.
Hey Olly, Nice to hear from you. Yeah, life's pretty good. Still in Boston trying to get my head round this jazz malarky... getting to play lots which is always a bonus. How's things with you? I love the music on your space. Thanks for the add.
Summer has been good...although I left McD's ( :) ) and have been unemployed since - dispite my best efforts. Other than that things are gd - my writing is fun.
Hws you been? You as excited about new term as I? (lots)
Hi Oliver. I noticed that you're writing an Opera. If you fancy getting involved with Opera Shorts in September, it would be great to hear from you.
New Opera in Scotland with many a talented musician...
I don't know if there are any other composers at the RSAMD interested in working with us, but the more that are, the better for everyone involved; spread the word.
Dear Oliver: Thanks for the add & the splendid orchestral writing. i enjoyed the quirkiness of the bass clarinet ensemble piece, too. Good luck with your opera. - gil.
hi oliver, had a listen sounds great! thanks for dropping in, come by again in the future i change the tunes (& styles) often. you can also check out my scoring/commercial work @ www. soundmusic. ca
in the meantime please check out and vote for my orchestral remix of "Nude" from the new Radiohead record! peace - steve :)
Ensemble Thing is a band of escaped music-college students and teachers, who play a mixture of composed and improvised music. For this gig they'll be playing Terry Riley's seminal In C (credited by many as the first minimalist piece, its hypnotic repetitions an inspiration to Glass, Reich et al.), along with some passages from their own collaboratively-written Dante's Inferno, and some surprises. Their own composing styles give nods to European post-minimalism (Thing's de facto leader John De Simone was a pupil of the great Louis Andriessen), metal, 60s soundtrack music, plainchant, Eastern European folk, and free jazz, while not sounding too much like any of these.
Cheers for linkin' up...good to hear from you. Tunes on your profile are sounding pretty damn good.
While I remember- I'm doing some consultancy work for Sync Me...a new sync project set up by Rab Noakes at Neon. Might be good for your music - see www. go2syncme. com - or drop me an email (back from the USA on Tuesday).
I'm spreading the word that we have a new EP for sale. If your interested we have some of the songs on our myspace and if you enjoy what you hear the 'Little Prayers 1-8' EP is available for the bargain price of £3.50 inc p&p,
<
