Edmund Finnis

Edmund Finnis (born 1984) is a British composer of classical and electronic music. His works have been commissioned and performed by orchestras and ensembles including the Britten Sinfonia, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, London Sinfonietta, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra; the pianist Clare Hammond and the clarinettist Mark Simpson. He was recipient of a Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award in 2012 and is currently a Professor of Composition at the Royal Academy of Music, where his notable students have included William Marsey and Robin Haigh.

Early life

Finnis was born in Oxford, where, as a child, he was a chorister at New College. Finnis went on to study composition with teachers including Julian Anderson, Paul Newland and Rozalie Hirs. He received a Leonard Bernstein Fellowship to study at Tanglewood and completed a doctorate at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama on the subject of distortion in acoustic instrumental music. Finnis also worked as an amanuensis for the composer Jonathan Harvey.

Career

From 2013 to 2016 Finnis was composer-in-association with the London Contemporary Orchestra. They commissioned and premiered several of Finnis' works, including Across White Air for solo cello with reverb, Between Rain for string orchestra, and the electronic piece Colour Field Painting.

Finnis maintains a close collaboration with the contemporary ensemble Manchester Collective, who have consistently championed his music through numerous commissions, performances, and recordings.