ABOUT JOHN HAWKINS

John Hawkins studied composition with Malcolm Williamson and Elisabeth Lutyens. He has written many chamber, vocal, orchestral and children’s pieces, which have been performed worldwide.

See a complete list of John Hawkins’ music
Hear audio on Soundcloud (some live performances, some from software)
See videos on YouTube

John Hawkins was born in Enfield in 1949. On leaving Highgate School, a brief attempt at studying dentistry at Guy’s Hospital was followed by more than 40 years’ work at the book publisher Thames & Hudson in production, design and finally digital book publishing. Musically, a course at London’s City Lit. led to private study with Malcolm Williamson and then with Elisabeth Lutyens.

On the recommendation of conductor Sir Charles Mackerras, John Hawkins was commissioned by the Marine Society to write a ‘Sea Symphony’, The commission specified first the experience of a four-week voyage to Australia on a container ship! The BBC broadcast one of three performances of the Symphony by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, that was followed by a broadcast by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Following the Symphony came other pieces to create a large-scale trilogy about the sea. The first of these, ‘Voices from the Sea ‘ for voice and string orchestra (‘… a stunning song cycle’ – THE STRAD), sets words by working merchant seamen. Sung by Martyn Hill, it is available on CD from Meridian Records. The final part of the trilogy is The Seafarer for tenor, choir and chamber orchestra (yet to be performed) in which the Anglo Saxon poem ‘The Seafarer’ is counterpointed with a dramatic letter from a seaman on a foundering cargo ship, written by Liverpool writer George Garrett.

The one-act opera ‘Echoes’ was commissioned by and performed as part of Covent Garden’s ‘Garden Venture’ scheme.

Chamber music includes ‘Urizen’, a virtuoso piece for viola and piano (first published by Boosey & Hawkes, now available from Comus Edition). ‘Urizen’ has been performed and broadcast many times worldwide. A recording by its dedicatee Paul Silverthorne was made on the Black Box Music CD ‘Invocations’. Nardo Poy and the New York Orpheus Chamber Orchestra gave the first performances of a version with string orchestra. A further version with chamber orchestra was made in 2007 for a performance in Japan by Yuko Inoue.

String quartets include an early (1977) three-movement quartet, published in 2014 by Fountayne Editions and recorded for YouTube. There are two single-movement quartets: ‘Fuzon’ (2013) – published by Comus Edition with a recording by the Piattin Quartet on YouTube – and Caged Moon. The string trio Quietus is included on the ‘Voices from the Sea’ CD and is published by Comus Edition.

The largest of John Hawkins’s choral pieces is ‘This World’ for choir and two trumpets. The libretto was inspired by working with the poet and Blake scholar Kathleen Raine on her book about William Blake ‘The Human Face of God’. It was commissioned by the choir Cryes of London and broadcast by the BBC Singers.

Other performances in  2019 included ‘Take Two’ (guitar duo); three performances of ‘Cortège?’ (violin and piano); ‘Looking Back’ (violin and piano); ‘Stranger, Lover, Dancer’ (solo ‘cello); ‘Lost in Translation’ (solo piano) and ‘At Two’ for two violas.
‘Sonata Serenata’ for Flute and piano was performed both at the Presteigne Festival by Katherine Bryan and in London, at St Martin in the Fields, by Emma Halnan.

2020
A CD of all my music for clarinet was released in January by Claudio Records. The CD includes the ‘Clarinet Concerto’ and ‘Simplicius Simplicissimus’ for clarinet and string orchestra and a setting of Edward Lear’s ‘The Dong with a Luminous Nose’ (voice and solo clarinet). Also included are the ‘Clarinet Sonata’ and ‘In Touch’ (three movements for clarinet, cello and piano).
The ‘Clarinet Sonata’ was performed by Steve Dummer and pianist Yoko Ono in Brighton in February and in Horsham in March.

Performances in 2020 included ‘Party Piece’ for two violas and clarinet performed by members of the wonderful Cuatro Puntos in Hertford CT; ‘Crossings’ for viola and guitar by Patricia McCarty and Bill Zito (streamed online from the InterHarmony International Music Festival); ‘BopBop’ for solo violin (online by Fenella Humphries).
New pieces written in 2020 included four ‘Period Pieces‘ for piano in the form, but not the style, of a baroque suite; ‘Friulian Songs‘ (two songs setting poems in the lovely Friulian language); ‘Canon and Toccata’ for two violins.

2021
New pieces written in 2021:
‘Nocturne’ for violin and piano is a companion piece for my ‘Cortège?‘ and is again based on a poem by Garcia Lorca. It was first performed, together with ‘Cortège?’, in Brighton in October 2021.
‘Contretemps’ is a dramatic new piece for solo bassoon (c. 2’30”)
‘Period Pieces’ A string trio version of my keyboard suite (Allemande, Courante, Sarabande and Gigue)
‘Three Cafés’ (‘New York’, ‘Rio’ and ‘Paris’) for clarinet and piano are enjoyable character pieces for (fairly) advanced students!

2022
Performances in 2022
 ‘Another Orpheus‘ for string orchestra was performed by Musicians of All Saints at St Mary’s church Brighton; Yoko Ono gave the world premiere of ‘Period Pieces‘ for piano at the Chapel Royal, Brighton; a concert in memory of the poet Edward Thomas was held at Steep where Thomas lived before his death in WW1. The concert included my song cycle ‘The Unknown Bird‘ (baritone with flute, viola and harp) and the world premiere of the cycle ‘Strange Bridge‘ for baritone and piano. The singer was John Lofthouse; ‘Romantique‘ played by the Aurora Trio at the London Composers’ Forum, Lauderdale House, Highgate; Trilogy Ensemble played ‘Romantique‘ in York as part of ‘York Late Music’; Peter Mallinson and Matthias Weisner  played ‘At Two‘ for two violas at Music & Wine at St Luke’s in Brighton; ‘The Dong with a Luminous Nose‘ was performed at Tête à Tête Opera in London with the superb mime/dancer Eline Pérès adding vision to the clarinet and voice parts; Michiko Shimanuki played ‘Lost in Translation‘ in her lunchtime concert at All Saints, Hove; the Piatti Quartet played my ‘Fuzon‘ string quartet as part of their Nicholas Yonge Society concert in Lewes; ‘Another Orpheus‘ for string orchestra, based on Shelley’s ‘Hellas’ was performed by the Stane Street Sinfonietta in an event commemorating the 200th anniversary of Shelley’s death; the Leto Ensemble gave the first performance of the trio ‘Adding Up‘ for flute, clarinet and piano

New Pieces written in 2022
‘Strange Bridge‘ for voice and piano is a cycle of three poems by Edward Thomas
‘Adding up‘ – four pieces for flute and clarinet or flute, clarinet and piano
‘Mimes‘ – a virtuoso solo clarinet single movement written for Yulia Drukh
‘Gospel and Collect‘ a re-written version of a church anthem (unison high voices and organ) . The words are taken from the prayerbook and are sadly appropriate in these times of war: ‘Lord save us, We perish.’
‘Sonus‘ for Tuba and Piano
‘Escape‘ for piano written for pianist Nancy Cooley to perform at a concert in aid of the charity Freedom from Torture in 2023 ‘
‘Threnody‘ for string orchestra – a reworking of the slow movement of my first string quartet will be performed in 2024 by Musicians of All Saints.

2023
Performances in 2023
‘Escape‘ for piano in a recital in aid of the charity ‘Freedom from Torture’ given by Nancy Cooley at St Anne’s Church in Lewes; ‘Urizen‘ for viola and piano performed by Ros Hanson and Stephen Carroll-Turner at Brighton Unitarian church; ‘Adding up’ for flute, clarinet and piano first performance given by the Leto Ensemble at the Quaker Meeting House in Brighton; ‘Bobop‘ in the version for solo viola played by Patricia McCarty at Keene Arts Centre, New York.; ‘Period Pieces‘ for piano performed by Yoko Ono at St Nicholas Church, Brighton and again at Der Bunglehoff in Hove; the solo clarinet piece ‘Mimes‘ was released on Yulia Drukh’s CD ‘Poesie der Luft’; ‘Urizen‘ will be performed at the Presteigne Festival by Rachel Roberts (viola) and Chris Hopkins (piano). In November, the brass quintet ‘Chidiock’s End’ was performed by Brass Fusion in Brighton and the song cycle ‘Child’s Play’  was commissioned by soprano Judy Mackerras and was performed by her in Lewes with the pianist Howard Beach.

2024
This is my 75th birthday year and performances began in January with: ‘Threnody’ for string orchestra, played by the Musicians of All Saints in Lewes. In February, ‘Period Pieces’ was video’d for YouTube by pianist Yoko Ono; ‘Escape’ for piano is part of Julian Broughton’s recital at Forest Hill on 24 March; ‘BoBop’ for solo violin will be performed by Ellie Blackshaw both at the NMB composers’ concert on 13th April and later at the Lunchtime Concerts series at the Chapel Royal in Brighton; ‘Sonata Serenata’ for flute and piano will be part of the Adur Festival on 13th of October with Klio Blonz, flute. Warwick music are publishing two of my pieces for brass instruments ‘Sonus’ (tuba and piano) and ‘Mouthpiece’ for trumpet and piano. My new piano quartet ‘Blake Visions’ originally scheduled for the autumn will now be performed by the London Piano Quartet at the Conway Hall in London early in 2025.

John Hawkins is married with three children and two grandchildren. He lives in Lewes, East Sussex. He is a member of the composers’ group New Music Brighton.

See a complete list of John Hawkins’ music
In addition to the commercial recordings, several pieces can be heard in SoundCloud
and see my channel on YouTube