Dr. Jolyon Laycock
Composer, pianist, music animateur, concert promoter, singer, poet.
1946: Born Bath, Somerset, England;
1965-1968: Studied for Bachelor of Music at Nottingham University under Ivor Keys and Arnold Whittall
1968-1971: Master of Philosophy in Music Composition, University of Nottingham;
Further composition studies with Henri Pousseur, Pierre Mariétan, Michel Decoust and Cornelius Cardew;
Piano studies with Roger Smalley and Susan Bradshaw;
1970-75: Director of Sound Studio at Birmingham Arts Laboratory;
1975-79: Director of Electronic Sound Studio at Spectro Arts Workshop, Newcastle on Tyne;
1979-89: Music and Dance Co-ordinator at the Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol;
1989-2000: Concert Director at Bath Spa University College and
the University of Bath; founded the award-winning concert
programme Rainbow over Bath;
1994: Contemporary Music Programme Director, Bath International Music Festival;
1996-2000: Set up
the European musical exchange programme Rainbow across Europe funded by the
European Union Kaleidoscope fund and Arts Council of England A4E Lottery programme, described
by Gillian Perkins as a ground-breaking initiative which took “creative music
making into European classrooms in several countries at once.”
1998-2002: Ph.D at the University of York under Nicola Lefanu: Doctoral thesis A Changing Role for the Composer in Society. Now published as a book by Peter Lang, Bern Switzerland 2005.
2000: Wrote the libretto of "The Summer Child" as a play in blank verse obeying the classical unities of time, space and action.
June 2002: Composer in Residence at the Corsham Festival;
1992-2000: Part-time lecturer in
Arts Administration at Bath
Spa University
College;
2003: "The Summer Child" - completion of first draft of the vocal score of a chamber opera, supported by South West Arts. Version later abandoned.
2000-2004: Part-time lecturer in music for University of Bristol Lifelong Learning Programme;
May 2004: Awarded 1st prize in the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution Poetry Prize 2004 with A Brief History of…;
2006-2010: Senior Lecturer in Arts Management, Oxford
Brookes University ; Successfully raised £¼ million from
the EU Leonardo da Vinci programme to support the European Arts Management
Programme, a 2-year project in collaboration
with universities and enterprise agencies in 9 European countries.
November 2011:
First published paper on the discovery of All-Interval Fractal Sets.
2011 to 2022: Chairman of the Severnside Composers Alliance (SCA); Responsible for concert programme planning, fund-raising etc. Successfully raised funds to support the work of SCA from Arts Council England, RVW Trust, Hinrichsen Foundation, PRSF, Paragon Music Trust & others.
July 2012: Awarded 1st Prize in the Jubilee Song Competition of the English Poetry and Song Society for a setting of Philip Larkin's poem The North Ship;
April 2014: Arts Council grant award in support of "Dark Seas", setting of 5 poems of Philip Larkin for coloratura soprano, clarinet and piano in collaboration with Sarah Leonard.
April 2009: "All-Interval Fractal Sets - a detailed analysis" - publication of the full definitive analysis.
June 2022: "The Summer Child" completion of vocal score of 3-act chamber opera based on an ancient British legend taken from "Historia Regum Britanniae" of Geoffrey of Monmouth.
August 2023: "The Summer Child" completion of full orchestral score.
February 2024: Rewording of Haydn's Creation based on astronomical and scientific advances concerning the origin and age of the universe, and archaeological evidence about the evolution of life on earth discovered during the 20th and 21st centuries.