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.