Biographical Notes

Alan Bullard was born in London in 1947 and studied with Herbert Howells at the RCM and Arnold Whittall at Nottingham University. For over 30 years he has lived near Colchester, Essex and for many years he was Head of Composition at Colchester Institute. He is now working as a full-time composer and he is also an examiner for the Associated Board.

As a composer he is prolific and wide-ranging, having written in most genres for both amateurs and professionals.
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The variety of commissions that he has undertaken - including music for a number of professional soloists and ensembles, many amateur choral societies and children's choirs, a semi-professional chamber orchestra, wind band and recorder festivals, a professional chamber choir, a festival for massed school choirs and instrumentalists, the anniversary celebrations of a church and a school, music for examination syllabuses and educational albums, and for a television programme about the Suffolk landscape - are some indication of the wide appeal of the music of this versatile composer to many different types of musicians and audiences.

Recent instrumental commissions range from the virtuosic A minor deconstruction for violin, clarinet and piano (Coll'Arte Trio, Birmingham 1998), Winter Variations for cello and piano (Jamie Walton and Daniel Grimwood, Tunbridge Wells 1998), Aztec Genesis for large symphony orchestra (Colchester Institute Symphony Orchestra, conductor Christopher Phelps, 2001), and String Quartet no. 2 (Quince Quartet, Essex University, 2006) to pieces for young musicians such as Zoological Band (Berkshire Young Musicians Trust, 1999), Sounds through the day for recorders and percussion (Colchester Youth Arts Partnership, 2001), Harwich Hornpipe for symphony orchestra (Essex Youth Orchestra, 2004) and a number of collections of pieces for beginners and intermediate players published by Oxford University Press, Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, Chester Music, and Spartan Press.

Recent choral commissions include Canticle of Freedom (Colchester Choral Society, 2000), A Bunyan Garland (Dame Alice Harpur School Choirs, Bedford, 2001), A year in a Day (Reading Phoenix Choir, 2001), A Summer Garland (Waltham Singers, 2002), Mr Lear (Sawtry Chorale, South Chiltern Choral Society, and the Kemsing Singers, 2002), A New Vision (United Reformed Church Eastern Synod and Musicians' Guild, 2003), Welcome May (Maia Singers, 2006), Byron at Newstead (Newstead Abbey Singers, 2007) and many carols and anthems for Oxford University Press.



For further information, visit Alan Bullard's website