Edward Tait Composer

About Edward

Edward Tait is a British composer, currently living in West London. He is studying Composition at the Royal Academy of Music, under the tutelage of Gareth Moorcraft and Louise Drewett. He recently won first-prize in the Composition category of the Berlioz International Music Competition in September 2024. Current projects include a commission from Lloyds Choir, for an upcoming concert in December, and a symphonic tone poem, inspired by native American folklore.

Since being granted a Scholarship by the UK Music and Dance Scheme to study at The Purcell School in 2017, he has studied with acclaimed composers Deborah Pritchard, Brian Elias and Jacques Cohen. He has had a number of orchestral works performed by the Purcell Symphony Orchestra, including Trireme (2019) and Mo Li Hua (2022). Most recently, his orchestral work Fleeting Manhattan was conducted by Nicholas Daniel, alongside both the Purcell School and Orion Orchestras, receving its premiere at St. John’s Smith Square in February 2024. Fleeting Manhattan went on to be shortlisted in the European Recording Orchestra’s 2024 Call for Scores.

Edward has had countless performances in-and-around London, including premieres of two of his compositions at Hatfield House, in October 2019 and September 2022. He has won prizes at a number of well-respected composition competitions, such as the North London Festival, Chesham Arts Festival, and Benslow Music Trust. In March 2023, Edward was fortunate to have his arrangement of Waltzing Matilda performed at Westminster Abbey, at the pre-service to the Commonwealth Day. More recently, his collaborative work Rhapsody for Sextet has been performed numerous times by the London Sinfonietta in 2024, as part of their ‘Sound Out Schools’ outreach project. He has also had his music performed by the Carducci Quartet, the Kucharsky Quartet, and the Chorleywood Orchestra, who premiered another of his orchestral works Crenark Hill in March 2024.

An active musical entrepreneur, he has organized dozens of concerts at the Purcell School and Amersham Free Church. These concerts have seen the premieres of works like Fantasia-Elegy for clarinet, Herbstlied for solo piano, and several settings of Shakespeare songs, for voices. He has also been active as a conductor, serving as the music director of the Purcell School’s outreach trip IMPULSE in 2023, as well as conducting the chamber ensemble Philomel during 2023 and 2024. Upon graduating from Purcell in 2024, Edward was awarded the Tim Stevenson Prize for Outstanding Composition, for his compositional and entrepreneurial work throughout his time at the school.

On top of his concert music, Edward has also written film and electronic music, most notably re-scoring the 1902 silent film Le Voyage dans la Lune, by Georges Melies. He has also done plenty of arranging work, having produced the first complete arrangement of Holst’s The Planets suite, for solo piano, which was premiered in 2023. He is currently in the process of producing a similar arrangement of Debussy’s Trois Nocturnes.

*Last Updated September 28th 2024*

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Extended Biography

Edward Stanley Tait was born in 2006, in Ruislip, West London, into a musical family, with his mother being a professional cellist, and his father, a violin teacher. He first got involved with music at the age of 6, while he was at Whiteheath Junior School, initially taking piano lessons with James Kellas. Furthermore, a year later, he began his study of the cello with his mother, who gave him lessons for several years.

He began composing at around age 8, idolising the great composers that he discovered through his instrumental repertoire, including Beethoven, Mahler, Ravel, and Stravinsky. Over the next few years, he began taking lessons in composition and musical theory with Andrew Melvin, extensively growing his knowledge of repertoire and compositional technique. During these years, his school, the Beacon School, began to further his opportunities as both a composer and pianist, giving performances of his music in venues across the Chilterns. He was also the winner of his Middle School category of the Beacon Young Musician of the Year, with a performance of Burgmüller on the piano.

That same year, Edward received a Scholarship to study at the prestigious Purcell School of Music, with his principal study in Composition, giving him the opportunity to study with the acclaimed composers Deborah Pritchard, Brian Elias, and Jacques Cohen. Additionally, at Purcell, he received masterclasses and seminars from Daniel Fardon, Simon Speare, Sylvia Lim, Robert Saxton, Julian Anderson, Judith Weir, Dru Masters, and Errollyn Wallen. As a proactive 2nd study pianist, he developed his pianistic technique under the mentorship of Lidia Amorelli, gaining a Distinction at Grade 8 Piano in 2022. He was also a 3rd study cellist for a couple of years, learning with Julian Metzger.

In concerts run by the Purcell School, Edward has had his music conducted by Nicholas Daniel, Paul Hoskins, and Edward Longstaff, and has received coaching of his compositions by well-established musical groups and ensembles, such as the Carducci Quartet, with his 2023 string quartet Passage of Time, and award-winning violinist Peter Sheppard-Skærved, on his Fantasy for Violin. His orchestral works, Mo Li Hua and Fleeting Manhattan have both received premieres by the Purcell School, in venues as diverse as Hatfield House and St. John’s Smith Square. He has given solo and chamber performances in countless Composers Concerts and Lunchtime Recitals throughout the years, as a pianist, accompanist, as well as a composer. Most recently, he conducted his own choral work Mirabile Mysterium in a lunchtime recital at Purcell, as well as conducting the student-led ensemble Philomel in 2023 and 2024.

Edward has managed and organised his own concerts at the Purcell School and the Amersham Free Church, taking on responsibilities including programming, marketing, presenting, stage managing, and more. As well as having his own music performed, he has performed himself as a pianist and conductor. In particular, he is an acclaimed pianist, having performed publicly at the Amersham Free Church and St. Andrew’s Church, specialising in the music of Ravel and Prokofiev. He is the pianist in the Vigneron Piano Trio, which he founded with students at Purcell, giving their debut performance in April 2024, playing Shostakovich’s Piano Trio No. 1. He launched the acclaimed concert series Composers Parallels, with their debut recital in July 2024, still ongoing to this day. In July 2024, Edward was awarded the Tim Stevenson Prize for Outstanding Composition by the Purcell School, for his significant compositional and entrepreneurial work throughout his final year at the school.

In the Sixth Form, he was an active member of the Purcell School’s awarding-winning Creative Ensemble. He was made Principal Pianist in the second year, contributing additionally as a conductor and composer, receiving a performance of his Ash Grove by the ensemble, in July 2024. He was also an active member of the Purcell School’s Sixth Form Choir, singing in iconic works like Bach’s Magnificat, Orff’s Carmina Burana, and Mozart’s Requiem. He has had the opportunity to conduct movements from the Requiem during rehearsals and masterclasses at school.

Edward is currently studying Composition at the Royal Academy of Music in September 2024, under the tutelage of Gareth Moorcraft and Louise Drewett. During his first few months, he received his first one-to-one masterclass with Eleanor Alberga, and has benefited greatly from seminars with Augusta Read Thomas, Ryan Latimer, and Anna Meredith. He is the founder and musical director of the student-led ensemble Expericademy, which he founded while studying at the Academy. Edward has received commissions from the Carducci Quartet and Lloyds Choir, as well as two separate commissions for Purcell’s annual concert at Hatfield House, in 2019 and 2022. Most recently, his clarinet trio Ballade was commissioned by Steve Crowther, and premiered by the ensemble Amabile at the York Late Music Festival in November 2024. These commissions have led to performances of his music at Hatfield House, York Unitarian Chapel, and Amersham Concert Club.

Edward has won significant prizes at a number of well-respected composition competitions, including the North London Festival, the Chesham Arts Festival, as well as being shortlisted for the Benslow Music Trust. He also recently won first-prize in the Composition category of the Berlioz International Music Competition in September 2024, with his solo piano work Lillibulero. His orchestral work Fleeting Manhattan was shortlisted in the European Recording Orchestra’s 2024 Call for Scores, through which he received masterclasses with esteemed Hollywood composers Conrad Pope and Christopher Young, as well as resident composers of the Film Scoring Academy of Europe, Arthur Brouns and Francisca Rios. In March 2023, he was very fortunate to have his arrangement of Waltzing Matilda performed in the pre-service to the Commonwealth Day Service, at Westminster Abbey. His work in the world of chamber music has led to performances of his music by the Chorleywood Orchestra, the Kucharsky Quartet, and the previously-mentioned Carducci Quartet.

Since 2023, he has been an active member of the Chorleywood Orchestra, predominantly as a percussionist, having performed with them in some great orchestral works, like Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade. In March 2024, the Chorleywood Orchestra premiered his orchestral work Crenark Hill, to great acclaim. He also regularly performs on the piano with Chorleywood, having played the piano part in Copland’s Appalachian Spring, and the celeste part in Howard Blake’s iconic soundtrack to The Snowman. His orchestral work with Chorleywood has brought him opportunities to perform the timpani with the Wycombe Festival Orchestra, accompanying some of the cornerstone romantic concertos, including Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto and Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2.

Edward has also done a sizeable amount of outreach work, introducing and nurturing musical development amongst young people in a number of schools across the UK, starting with his first interactive assembly in Bushey Heath Primary School in December 2022. He played a leading role in IMPULSE 2023, an outreach trip across North Norfolk, which he took part in with the Purcell School, in June 2023. During this trip, he was involved in interactive assemblies at schools like Burnham Market, Docking Nursery, and Wells Primary, as well as being involved in concerts at the Yorke Trust, Fulmodeston Christ Church, and the Handa Theatre in Wells Maltings, in which he was the lead conductor. He contributed his composition skills as part of the ‘Sound Out Schools’ outreach project, run by the London Sinfonietta, later receiving a commission for Rhapsody, a short piece using musical material composed by young students at St Ignatius School in Enfield. Rhapsody went on to receive numerous performances by the Sinfonietta throughout May and June.

In addition to his concert music, Edward has also written film and electronic music, notably having re-scored the 1902 silent film Le Voyage dans la Lune, by George Melies, which is currently receiving a studio recording. In 2023, he wrote the first complete solo piano arrangement of Holst’s The Planets suite. The arrangement was premiered at Purcell in December 2023, and is still performed regularly to this day. He is currently working on a similar piano arrangement of Debussy’s Nocturnes.

*Last Updated November 7th 2024*

Past Highlights

2024

Lloyds Choir Summer Concert
6:45pm ▪ December 12th 2024
St Katharine Cree Church, London (UK)
Premiere of In the Bleak Midwinter

York Late Music Festival
7:30pm ▪ November 2nd 2024
Unitarian Chapel, York (UK)
Premiere of Ballade

Ode to Joy
7pm ▪ September 28th 2024
St Andrew’s Church, Chorleywood (UK)
Performing in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9

Composers Parallels I, Shostakovich
3pm ▪ July 9th 2024
Recital Room, Purcell School (UK)
Premiere of String Trio No. 1
Performing Shostakovich’s Piano Trio No. 1

Peter Sheppard Skærved Solo Recital
7pm ▪ May 8th 2024
Recital Room, Purcell School (UK)
Premiere of Fantasy for Violin

Minimalism with the London Sinfonietta
7:30pm ▪ May 3rd 2024
Dugdale Arts Centre, Enfield (UK)
Premiere of Rhapsody for Sextet

An Easter with Purcell
3:30pm ▪ April 11th 2024
Free Church, Amersham (UK)
Edward Tait’s Prelude for Violin and Piano
Tchaikovsky’s Dumka
Edward Tait’s Herbstlied
Eugene Bozza’s Aria for Saxophone and Piano
Shostakovich’s Piano Trio No. 1

Spring Serenade
7pm ▪ March 23rd 2024
St Andrew's Church, Chorleywood (UK)
Premiere of Crenark Hill
Performed by the Chorleywood Orchestra

Rhapsody in Blue Centenary Concert
7pm ▪ February 12th 2024
St John's Smith Square, London (UK)
Premiere of Fleeting Manhattan
Performed by the Orion Orchestra

2023

The Planets: Reimagined
7pm ▪ December 5th 2023
Recital Room, Purcell School (UK)
Premiere of Edward Tait’s arrangement of The Planets suite by Gustav Holst

Chiltern Arts Festival Winter Warmer
7pm ▪ March 3rd 2023
St. Peter's & St. Paul's Church, Great Missenden (UK)
Performance of Passage of Time
Performed by the Carducci Quartet

2022

Family Concert
2pm ▪ September 18th 2022
St Etheldreda’s Church, Hatfield House (UK)
Performance of Mo Li Hua

Music Catalogue

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2019

Variations on a Theme from Mary Poppins, Op. 1
for Solo Cello

Trireme, Op. 2
for Orchestra

Fantasia for Four Hands, Op. 3
for Four-Hand Piano

2020

Prelude for Violin and Piano, Op. 4
for Violin and Piano

Allegro for Piano, Op. 5
for Solo Piano

Jazz Elegy, Op. 6
for Solo Piano

2021

Alpenhornhymne, Op. 7
for Brass Trio

Prelude in C Minor, Op. 8
for Solo Piano

Passacaglia for Quintet, Op. 9
for Wind Quintet

Mo Li Hua, Op. 10
for Orchestra

Two Sketches Written from the Dartmouth Steam Railway, Op. 11
for Solo Piano

Fugue for String Trio, Op. 12
for String Trio

Caledonian Voyage, Op. 13
(Improvised Soundtrack)
for Solo Piano

2022

Quartet for the End of the Day, Op. 14
for Clarinet, Violin, Cello and Piano

Elegy, Op. 15
for Violin and Guitar

Two Shakespeare Songs, Op. 16
for S.A.T.B. Choir

Le Voyage dans la Lune, Op. 17
(Soundtrack)
for Chamber Orchestra

One Spirit Voice, Op. 18
for Synthesizer

Passage of Time, Op. 19
for String Quartet

2023

Interlude, Op. 20
for Piano Trio

Waltzing Matilda, Op. 21
*Arrangement* for Mixed Ensemble

Fantasia No. 1, Op. 22
for Solo Piano

Herbstlied, Op. 23
for Solo Piano

The Planets, Op. 24
(Arrangement)
for Solo Piano

Hunstanton Prelude, Op. 25
for Mixed Ensemble

String Trio No. 1, Op. 26
for String Trio

Allegretto, Op. 27
for Clarinet and Piano

Crenark Hill, Op. 28
for Orchestra

Viennese Autumn Waltz, Op. 29
for String Quartet

Fantasia-Elegy, Op. 30
for Clarinet and Piano

2024

Fleeting Manhattan, Op. 31
for Orchestra

Eclogue, Op. 32
for Wind Quintet

Empire of the Sun, Op. 33
(Arrangement)
for Violin and Piano

In Memorium Lulu, Op. 34
for Solo Piano

Mirabile Mysterium, Op. 35
for S.S.A.T.B. Choir

Fantasy for Violin, Op. 36
for Solo Violin

EDTA, Op. 37
for Cello, Snare Drum and Piano

Scottish Dances, Op. 38
for Oboe Quartet

Barton Coast, Op. 39
for Saxophone Quartet

Ash Grove, Op. 40
for Mixed Ensemble

Rhapsody for Sextet, Op. 41
(Collaboration)
for Mixed Ensemble

Lillibulero, Op. 42
for Solo Piano

Capriccio, Op. 43
for Two Bassoons

Frühlingslied, Op. 44
for Solo Cello

Sicilliene and Epilogue, Op. 45
for Solo Piano

Reviews

I always look forward to hearing Edward’s compositions, and once again I liked his Herbstlied, which was a pleasure to learn and perform.

– Yazdi Madon, who premiered his Herbstlied

Everything you write is always very thought through, it feels like everything has its place, and it’s the perfect mix of sounding fresh and contemporary while still being accessible and enjoyable to listen to!

– Tom McDonnell, who premiered his Allegretto, Fantasia-Elegy and Eclogue

Edward is a highly talented, enterprising young composer and has been an invaluable member of The Purcell School’s Composition Department for 7 years. During this time, Edward’s own work has developed and matured in numerous directions, and he has composed a great deal of fascinating original music for the many different creative projects run by the school over the years.

As a member of the sixth form, Edward is also now curating his own concerts, each having a different focus, including not only his own work, but also compositions by other students in the Composition Department. The concerts are carefully organised and very well presented and always give additional opportunities to the school’s young composers and performers.

Edward will be leaving The Purcell School in July 2024 to study in further and higher education. I am confident that he will become one of our future musical entrepreneurs and wish him all the very best for the future.

– Alison Cox OBE, Head of Composition during his time at the Purcell School

A mesmerizing and innovative metamorphosis of one of the most imposing and impenetrable works of symphonic music. Every sonority and musical gesture is preserved, yet reimagined for the piano. Intimate and austere in approach, this transcription breathes new life into a colossal masterpiece and adds a new layer of expression by reinventing it for the piano.

– Leo Lupascu, who premiered his arrangement of The Planets

Edward’s compositions have never failed to amaze me, with his works showing a nostalgic feel reminiscent of the works of great composers such as Britten, yet also showcasing a unique and individual stamp.

– Rhys Stokes, who premiered his Mo Li Hua and Fleeting Manhattan

Performing Edward’s new composition was a great opportunity for me. The orchestra did well to keep up, and I was fond of all the colours that came out of the composition! Always kept on your feet, exciting atmosphere, and I highly recommend you give it a listen.

– Joshua Gearing, on premiering Crenark Hill

Undoubtedly a very exciting upcoming compositional voice. Works with such a strong character and a unique integrity. It was an absolute pleasure for me to hear some of Edward’s early works and I will follow his future career with great interest.

– Samuel Kemp

Ed has an exciting future ahead as a composer, as demonstrated by the excellent craftsmanship shown in Crenark Hill. It’s a very clever piece, both playful and majestic, and was a pleasure to perform.

– Daniel Hogan

His music is one of the most, if not the most, interesting type of music that I have seen in my entire generation, full of creativity, imagination and emotions.

– Herman Cerisha

Chorleywood Orchestra was delighted to premiere Edward Tait’s ‘Crenark Hill’ in a recent concert. The vision of a Scottish band marching across a massive hill was represented by two contrasting themes – introduced separately then later combining and contrasting with harmonic clashes and offsets rhythms to build up to an exciting climax with a surprise ending. Crenark Hill was fun to play and very well-received by the audience. I could see it becoming one of a suite of pieces with a slightly quirky take on folk music from different regions of the UK.

– Andrew McFarlane, review on Crenark Hill

I am glad I had the opportunity to perform Edward’s new composition. His new Prelude for Violin and Piano can bring a challenge to the musicians. The highlight is the use of the pentatonic scale and different modes, which is what makes it so great fun to work on.

– Dominic-Lucian Drutac, review on Prelude for Violin and Piano

About Edward

Extended Biography

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