Short biography

Jolyon Laycock was born in Bath in 1946. He studied for B.Mus and M.Phil in composition at the University of Nottingham under Arnold Whittall and Ivor Keys. His composition teachers included Henri Pousseur, Cornelius Cardew and David Bedford. Later in life he studied for his Ph.D at York under Nicola Lefanu. 

His compositions include many songs, music for solo piano, solo woodwind, choir, orchestra and chamber ensemble, as well as experimental and environmental soundscapes. During the 1970s he pursued a freelance career as an experimental sound artist. In 1979 he took up the post of Music and Dance Coordinator at the Arnolfini in Bristol, running a programme regarded as one of the most innovative outside London. In 1990 he took up the post of Concert Director at the University of Bath and the Michael Tippett Centre at Bath Spa University College where he founded the award-winning concert series “Rainbow over Bath” and master-minded the international contemporary music exchange programme "Rainbow Across Europe". In 2004 he was appointed Senior Lecturer in Arts Management at Oxford Brookes University until 2010. He became Chairman of the Severnside Composers Alliance in May 2011.

In 1994 he was commissioned by the Diocese of Bath & Wells to write Edgar the King, a setting for choir and orchestra of poems from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. He has written many educational and community works including Dream River: Great Wall , a creative project for junior school children in collaboration with the UK Chinese Ensemble funded by Youth Music in 2002 & 2003. His poem A Brief History of... won first prize in the 2004 Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution poetry competition. 

Dark Seas - 5 poems of Philip Larkin for Coloratura Soprano, Clarinet and Piano  

In 2012 Laycock's setting of Philip Larkin‘s poem The North Ship  won first prize in the EPSS Jubilee Song Competition, performed by Sarah Leonard. As a result he was able to collaborate with Sarah Leonard in the creation of Dark Seas, a setting, for coloratura soprano, clarinet and piano, of five poems by Phlip Larkin, funded by Arts Council England.  Click here to view a copy of the score -  Click here to listen to a recording

The Summer Child - a chamber opera in 3 acts

Jolyon Laycock has written three operas. The most recent, "The Summer Child" completed in 2024, is a chamber opera based on an ancient British legend taken from Historia Regum Britanniae of Geoffrey of Monmouth.  Performances of extracts are planned for Spring 2025. 

Click here for more details of this fascinating project very much still in the making. 

New: Haydn's Creation reworded

This exciting new version of the much-loved classical masterpiece takes account of astronomical and scientific advances concerning the origin, age and size of the universe, and archaeological evidence about the evolution of life on Earth discovered during the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. The music is exactly the same as Haydn's original. Only the words have changed. "Haydn's Creation Reworded" tells the story of the universe from the Bang Bang to the formation of the sun and the solar system, and the birth of life on earth. It ends with a moral message: Mankind is a way for the universe to know itself. Mankind must use scientific skill to protect the earth, not to destroy it. Save the world! We only have one home.  

Download the vocal score now and try it out with your local choral society.

... "Among Seven Hills - Sinfonia Concertante for Piano and Orchestra" ... used the complete orchestra along with superb soloist Philip Mead, and referred to the River Avon and its movement through the hills. The piano gradually emerged through the changing sounds of the ensemble. They began with glorious chords that swelled, followed by silence, then swelled again and again. Woodwinds seemed to create a timeless watery world... Jean Hasse, Bristol Evening Post, Thursday 15 April 2010.

As they revealed themselves to us we began to find the many expressive qualities in them, and realised how closely they described the poems. I think they are a major new song cycle for an experienced soprano and I look forward to singing them again in the future... Sarah Leonard commenting on Dark Seas (2014)