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Michael Finnissy was born in Tulse Hill, London in 1946 and studied at the Royal College of Music. He later studied in Italy with Roman Vlad. He went on to create the music department of the London School of Contemporary Dance, and has been associated as composer with many notable British dance companies. He has also been musician in residence to the Victorian College of the Arts, the City of Caulfield in Australia, and the East London Late Starters Orchestra. In 1999 he was made Professor of Composition at the University of Southampton.
Finnissy has been featured composer at the Bath, Huddersfield, and Almeida festivals, and his works are widely performed and broadcast worldwide. As a pianist he is particularly associated with the commissioning and performing of new British work; The History of Photography in Sound received its complete première in January 2001 at the hands of Ian Pace.
Finnissy was also a featured composer in the 2003 BMIC ‘Cutting Edge’ series, with performers including the Plus-Minus Ensemble, the New Music Players, and Philip Howard. In 2004 the London Sinfonietta performed In Stiller Nacht at the Festival Aspects des Musiques d'Aujourd'hui in Caen, France, and Finnissy’s music was featured at the Huddersfield Festival in 2004.
2006 was Michael Finnissy’s sixtieth birthday year, and highlights included ‘The Finnissy Weekend’ - a series of concerts at the BMIC ‘Cutting Edge’ series, the world première of his song cycle Whitman at HCMF, and a full performance of his epic piano cycle The History of Photography in Sound.
Performances continue to flourish worldwide and January 2008 saw the revival of his major orchestral work Red Earth by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, chosen by Judith Weir to form part of her BBC composer weekend.
Earlier Finnissy works are published by United Music Publishers, and further information on other pieces can also be obtained from the British Music Information Centre.
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