Nicola Lefanu

The music of composer Nicola LeFanu has been widely performed and recorded. She is also influential as an educator, lecturer, and organizational leader. LeFanu was born in Wickham Bishops in England's county of Essex, on April 28, 1947. Her mother, Elizabeth Maconchy, was a composer; her father, William LeFanu, came from an Irish literary family. LeFanu attended St. Hilda's College at Oxford University and then went on for further musical studies at the Royal College of Music and Harvard University under a Harkness Fellowship for foreign students. LeFanu won a series of prizes and fellowships that gained attention for her first works, written in the 1970s. One of these was the prestigious German-English Mendelssohn Fellowship. LeFanu served as the director of music at St. Paul Girls' School in West London from 1975 to 1977. She moved on to King's College London in 1977, serving there as a lecturer, senior lecturer, and professor before moving to York University as a professor of music. She was head of the music department there from 1994 to 2001, finally retiring from teaching in 2008. LeFanu continued her studies, earning a doctoral degree in music from the University of London in 1988. Her music, which often draws inspiration from natural scenes and settings, is written for traditional instruments and encompasses a variety of genres. She has said, however, that she feels an affinity for vocal music, and she is the composer of eight operas, from Dawnpath (1977) to Tokaido Road, a Journey after Hiroshige (2014). More than 25 of LeFanu's compositions have been recorded, including her early tone poem Columbia Falls for orchestra (1974), depicting a setting in the state of Maine. Her compositions have appeared on the Naxos, Neos, and NMC labels, among others. In 2020, orchestral music from various parts of her career were collected on the album The Crimson Bird and Other Orchestral Works.
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