Geoffrey Burgon was born in 1941, he came relatively late to music. As a teenager he taught himself the trumpet in order to play jazz, and it was as a trumpeter that he entered the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He already had a catalogue of compositions and at the Guildhall his urge to compose grew. Eventually he asked his teacher, whether he could make it as a composer. His reply was decisive: ‘Well, you don’t seem to be able to stop, do you?’ After further study he decided to give up performing and devote himself entirely to composition. The years that followed were financially lean, but musically rich.

Then in 1976 came two breakthrough successes. At the same time his ability to engage directly with audiences resulted in growing numbers of commissions for TV and film scores, including BBC’s Dr Who and The Chronicles of Narnia, Granada’s Brideshead Revisited and the film Monty Python’s Life of Brian. The Brideshead Revisited soundtrack went Gold, selling over 100,000 copies, and the music won him his second Ivor Novello Award in 1981(two years after his first for Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy). More recently he was to win BAFTAs for Best Television Music for Granada’s The Forsyte Saga and Channel 4’s Longitude.

Despite commercial success, he maintained the flow of ‘serious’ works – to continuing critical acclaim. There have been major stage works, including an opera and dance scores for the Royal Ballet, London Contemporary Dance Theatre and Ballet Rambert. Later success have included a concerto for the percussionist Evelyn Glennie.

This was followed by a piano concerto for Joanna MacGregor, song cycles, Three Mysteries for soloists, choir and chamber orchestra, an anthem for St Paul’s Cathedral Choir and other new choral pieces

Geoffrey passed away after a short illness on September. 21, 2010. In this week’s show we feature his Narnia Suite which was played as the 3^rd Section Regional test piece in 2000.