John Reeman. M.Mus. BA Hons. LTCL.

6, Grenville Avenue,

St. Annes on Sea,

Lancashire FY8 2RR,

England.

Tel. 01253 726681

www.johnreemanmusic.com

Biography.

John Reeman was born in 1946 and after following a variety of occupations, including being a member of a vocal cabaret act, he entered Hull University as a mature student to study composition and the flute. He was awarded the annual music prize, an Honours degree and later a Master’s degree in composition.

He has written a wide range of works for both amateur and professional musicians. These include short solo pieces for young players, various ensemble compositions, music for brass and wind bands, string ensembles, choirs and orchestras. His compositions are characteristically accessible, frequently combining extensive thematic development with dramatic contrasts of mood and colour.

In 1995 John Reeman won the Gregynog Composers’ Award of Wales. His Flute Concerto was one of the final three works in the 1990 International Concerto Composition Competition launched to mark the Morley College Centennial. In 2000 his “When the wind blows” for violin and piano was selected for performance and recording in the UK. and Eire Composition Platform. In 2002 his Scena for String Quartet was awarded the first prize in the “In Memoriam Zoltan Kodaly International Composers’ Competition” in Hungary. Recently in 2008 one of his choral works, The Peace of God, was awarded the first prize in the USA’s Vanguard Voices Premieres composition competition. A number of his pieces have been published and recorded and his music is regularly performed throughout the United Kingdom and in venues abroad including Australia, America, Germany, Japan, Russia, Sweden, Hungary and Denmark.

Opus 20’s recent recording of Symphony for Strings  attracted some very favourable reviews. Seen and Heard, Peter Graham Woolf “John Reeman’s Symphony is a fine, vigorous and well wrought contribution to the genre”. Classical London, Paul Pellay “the material is constantly memorable, and it is used in surprising and original ways. It feels like a real symphony.” In a recent revue on musicweb-international of Scena for string quartet Christopher Thomas wrote, “an impressively constructed work….Reeman’s approach to harmony and melodic line is never less than absorbing.”