Maw, Nicholas – Was a top contemporary composer

Nicholas Maw (1935-2009)

ONE of Britain’s most celebrated contemporary composers was the son of a Grantham music shop owner.

Nicholas Maw, whose opera Sophie’s Choice was a sell-out at Covent Garden was born in the town.

His father was a pianist and self-taught church organist who ran a music shop in Finkin Street.

Maw spent his early years living in Grantham but he and his sister Janet were sent to live with relatives in Chislehirst, south London, in the early years of the Second World War.

The two were later sent to Wennington School, Wetherby, Yorkshire. There a young music mistress introduced him to the work of Bartok, Stravinsky and Ravel, and encouraged him to compose.

From 1955 until 1958 Maw was a student at the Royal Academy of Music. He later moved to Paris to continue his studies.

In 1962, at the age of 26, Maw established his reputation, producing his Scenes and Arias for a BBC Prom. The piece is now regarded as one of the outstanding works of the 60s.

Two comic operas followed – 1964’s One Man Show and The Rising of the Moon, finished in 1970.

From 1973 until 1987 Maw worked on one of his most ambitious projects, Odyssey, an unbroken 96-minute span of symphonic music.

A recording of the piece, conducted by Simon Rattle, was nominated for a Grammy award in 1992 and has been cited as one of the best classical CDs of the 90s.

In 2000 a recording of Maw’s Violin Concerto was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize.

His most recent success came with the production of his opera, Sophie’s Choice, at Covent Garden inspired after Maw rented the film, starring Meryl Streep.

Maw was “thunderstruck” by how suitable the story was for operatic treatment and immediately dashed out to buy William Styron’s novel, on which the film was based.

Ten years later five performances of the work, again conducted by Simon Rattle, sold out and were well received by audiences and critics.

As well as composing Maw has also had a career in teaching, including positions at Trinity College, Cambridge, Exeter University, Yale University and Baltimore’s Peabody Conservatory.

In his later years, the composer divided his time between his home in Washington DC and a holiday home in France.