Bill Hopkins (composer)


G.W. Hopkins was a British composer and music critic.

Biography

Hopkins was born in Prestbury, Cheshire, and educated at Rossall School, Lancashire; his mother's learning difficulties meant she was unable to look after him, and he was raised by aunts. An encounter with Luigi Nono at Dartington consolidated his interest in serialism; subsequently he studied at Oxford University with Edmund Rubbra and Egon Wellesz.
In 1964 he went to Paris, ostensibly to study with Olivier Messiaen but with the prime objective of meeting and studying with Jean Barraqué. Returning to England, he supported himself as a music critic in London and then, after moving first to Tintagel, Cornwall and subsequently to Peel, Isle of Man, by translation and writing music criticism. He married Clare Gilbert in 1972. Subsequently, he taught at Birmingham University and University of Newcastle upon Tyne before succumbing to a heart attack, in Chopwell, near Newcastle, at the age of 37. His few pupils included the British composers Paul Keenan and Patrick Ozzard-Low.
He was upset at an under-rehearsed first performance of En Attendant in 1977 and this possibly discouraged him from composition for a while. He was working on an opera project, tentatively called Ness, but little if any of this was completed.

Compositions

Bill Hopkins' compositions were largely unpublished at his death, but following efforts by Nicolas Hodges and Patrick Ozzard-Low they are now all published, many in new editions.
His complete piano works have been edited and recorded by Nicolas Hodges,. En Attendant, Two Pomes, Pendant and Sensation have been recorded by Music Projects/London and Richard Bernas,.