Martin Dalby
Martin Dalby was born in Aberdeen in 1942. He was educated at Aberdeen Grammar School and in 1960 won a Foundation Scholarship to the Royal College of Music in London where he studied composition with Herbert Howells and viola with Frederick Riddle. In 1963 the Octavia Prize and a Sir James Caird Travelling Scholarship enabled him to spend two years in Italy where besides composing he played the viola with a small Italian Chamber Orchestra. In 1965 he was appointed as a music producer to the BBC’s newly formed Music Programme (later to be Radio 3.)
In 1971 he became the Cramb Research Fellow in Composition at the University of Glasgow and in 1972 returned to the BBC as Head of Music, Scotland. In 1991 he relinquished this post in order to pursue a more creative role. In 1993 he retired from the BBC and composed full time.
He wrote a large amount of music: for orchestra, for chorus, for brass bands and wind bands, for the church, for Film, Radio and Television, many songs and song cycles, and chamber music ranging from duos and trios to octets and nonets. Most of it has been commissioned: from festivals such as Edinburgh, Cheltenham, Cardiff, Orkney and Peterborough, or from orchestras and ensembles. It has been performed widely throughout the world notably at such festivals as the Warsaw Autumn and the Henry Wood Proms in London for which more recently he wrote The Mary Bean for the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.
Dalby had a profound interest in Scotland: he produced BBC Radio Scotland’s massive radio history, Scotland’s Music a few years ago and won a Sony Gold Award for it; he and his colleagues won a Gramophone award for their CD of James MacMillan’s The Confession of Isobel Gowdie; his composing peers awarded him a ‘Gold Badge’ in 1999.
Dalby always concerned himself with the interests of his fellow composers. He helped in forming and running several chamber groups in Scotland. He was Chairman of the Composers’ Guild of Great Britain from 1995 to 1998 and a founding director of the UK composer organisation, The British Academy of Composers and Songwriters. He was also Warden elect of the Incorporated Society of Musicians’ Performers and Composers Section.
