"I found his music utterly compelling, Oliver is plainly a man to watch"
- Martin Anderson, Tempo Magazine
Composer Des Oliver (b.1976) was born in Bedfordshire and began
playing the trumpet and piano at the age of 14. He went on to study composition
at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Robert Saxton and Simon
Bainbridge. In 2000 he won a Scholarship to study with Steve Martland at the
Royal Academy of Music in London and has had Master classes with Tom
Adés, Nicholas Maw, Paul Patterson, the BBC Singers, Paavo Heininen, Paul
Rouders and Simone Fontanelli. At present he is working towards his Doctorate
in composition (DPhil) at Worcester College, Oxford.
His music has been performed at the British Music
Information Centre (B.M.I.C), the South Bank Centre as part of the Park Lane Group
Young Composer's Symposium, Chelmsford Music Festival and Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.
Commissions include a work for Clio Gould and the Royal Academy of Music
Soloists as part of the Arvo Pärt in profile Festival. His short Opera 'Miss
Treat', with a libretto by Meredith Oakes, was performed by the Tête á Tête
Opera Company at the Bridewell Theatre receiving rave reviews from the Observer,
Independent and Telegraph. International performances include Wegelius Hall in
Helsinki, Pärnu Music Festival in Estonia, Hudebni Akademie Muzickych umeni (in
Prague) and more recently at the II Música Nueva Málaga Internacional Festival
in Spain (2009) in association with soloist Emil Sein, Composer/Professor Dino
Ghezzo and choreographer Lisa Naugle.
Des has also taught composition at Brunel University
and currently lectures at the Academy of Contemporary Music (ACM), Guildford.