Adam Pounds

Composer Adam Pounds is known for programmatic works depicting aspects of British geography and history. He has also written abstract orchestra and chamber works, including a series of numbered symphonies. Pounds was born in London in 1954. He attended the London College of Music, studying composition, conducting, oboe, and classical guitar. Settling on composition, he took private lessons from Sir Lennox Berkeley. Pounds went on to Goldsmith's College, London, earning a bachelor's degree with honors and moving to Trinity Hall, Cambridge University, for a master of education degree. Pounds was also active as a conductor during this period and founded two new groups, the Nelson Orchestra in London and the Academy of Great St. Mary's (now the Great St. Mary's Orchestra) in Cambridge. He also conducted the Stapleford Choral Society. In the early '70s, Pounds attracted attention with his Sinfonietta, and since then, he has devoted himself largely to composition. His Gaelic Triptych appeared in 1983 and depicted several present-day and historical scenes of Scotland. For some years, Pounds pursued orchestral music of a programmatic nature, writing such works as Northern Picture, which depicted the Castlerigg Stone Circle. Pounds' musico-geographic interests were aided by his interest in fell-walking (hiking in high, difficult places). As Pounds' career developed, he began to pursue a greater variety of genres. Sometimes, he retained programmatic content but of a more general type; his Second String Quartet embodied themes of war, reason, and mediation. Pounds has written an opera, Syn, based on the novel Christopher Syn by Russell Thorndike and various vocal and choral works, some using texts from classic literature. His London Cantata to words by William Blake, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and others was recorded by the Stapleford Choral Society in 2018. In later life, Pounds has begun a series of numbered symphonies; his Symphony No. 3 (2021) appeared on a 2024 recording by the Sinfonia of London, conducted by John Wilson. His Symphony No. 4 had its premiere in Cambridge in December of 2023.
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