Biography
Richard Ayres was born in Cornwall in 1965 and studied composition and trombone at Huddersfield Polytechnic. Since September 1989 he has lived and worked in the Netherlands. He followed the postgraduate composition course at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, studying with Louis Andriessen, graduating in 1992. In 1994 he was awarded the International Gaudeamus prize for composition. In 1999 his piece No.31 (for trumpet and ensemble) received a "recommendation" at the Unesco Rostrum of Composers in Paris. He was appointed as teacher of composition at the Royal Conservatoire in Den Haag in January 2004.
From 1990 Richard Ayres has worked as a composer, receiving performances from many of the leading Dutch and European ensembles such as the ASKO Ensemble, Schönberg Ensemble, Ives Ensemble, Orkest de Volharding, the Maarten Altena Ensemble, Apartment House, Klangforum Wien, MusikFabrik and London Sinfonietta, as well as writing for ensembles with more unusual instrumentations formed for specific projects.
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He was a featured composer at the 2001 Aldeburgh Festival during which a new work for orchestra was premiered by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Sakari Oramo.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.