Thomas Wilson (1927-2001) was a “central figure in Scotland during the renaissance of 20th-century music.”

THE GUARDIAN

Thomas Brendan Wilson was born in the USA in 1927 of British parents. Shortly after the family returned to the UK, and settled in the Glasgow area. Apart from a period of three years spent in France, he lived in Scotland. He was educated at St. Mary’s College, Aberdeen.

Wilson served in the RAF from 1945-48. He read Music at the University of Glasgow, and in 1957 he accepted a teaching post there. In 1971 he was appointed Reader and in 1997 was given a personal Chair. He consistently played an active part in the musical life of Britain, holding executive and advisory positions in such organisations such as the Arts Council, The New Music Group of Scotland, The Society for the Promotion of New Music, The Composers Guild of Great Britain (Chairman 1986-89), and The Scottish Society of Composers (of which he was a founder member).

Wilson’s works have been played all over the world and embrace all forms – orchestral, choral-orchestral, chamber-orchestral, opera, ballet, brass band, vocal music of different kinds, and works for a wide variety of chamber ensembles and solo instruments.

He was given many important commissions – Henry Wood Proms, Scottish Opera, Glasgow 1990, Scottish Ballet, Edinburgh Festival, Cheltenham Festival, City of London Festival, Musica Nova, BBC, to name but a few. In 1990 Thomas Wilson was awarded the CBE in the Queen”s Birthday Honour List. The following year he was created a Fellow of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, and Glasgow University conferred an Honorary Doctorate of Music upon him, also at this time he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.