Composer Information: Mervyn Cooke

Mervyn Cooke

Mervyn was educated at Dover Grammar School for Boys, the Royal Academy of Music, and King's College, Cambridge, where he held an Open Scholarship and subsequently completed a PhD thesis on Asian influences in the music of Benjamin Britten. He was for six years Research Fellow and Director of Studies in Music at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, before moving to Nottingham to take up a lectureship in Music in 1993. At the University of Nottingham he has served as both Head of the Department of Music and Vice-Dean (Undergraduate) of the Faculty of Arts.

Iain Ellis Hamilton (1922 – 2000)

Hamilton was born in Glasgow but was educated in London, where he became an apprentice engineer. He remained in that profession for the next seven years. He undertook the study of music in his spare time. After winning a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Music, which he entered in 1947, he decided to devote himself to a musical career. He earned the Bachelor of Music degree from the University of London and was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Music from the University of Glasgow.

Hamilton moved to the United States in 1962, but died in London, aged 78.

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