Peter Aston
Biography
Born in Birmingham, Peter Aston's initial training was in composition and conducting. His subsequent career has combined teaching and lecturing with work as a composer, conductor and musicologist. Peter has held senior academic posts at the University of York and the University of East Anglia, where he was professor and head of music for twenty-five years and is now Professor Emeritus.
Peter's compositions include chamber music, choral works, orchestral works and a children's opera, but he is best known as a composer of church music. As a conductor Peter has worked with several of the leading British orchestras and with various international festival choirs. He was the conductor of the Aldeburgh Festival Singers for fourteen years and has been principal conductor of the Sacramento Bach Festival Choir and Orchestra in California. Peter has also worked as the permanent conductor of such groups as the Tudor Consort and the English Baroque Ensemble, both of which he founded. He appears as a guest conductor with choirs and orchestras at leading festivals in Europe and America, and is frequently invited to conduct his own music at venues on both sides of the Atlantic.
Peter was co-founder of the Norwich Festival of Contemporary Church Music in 1981 and is a Lay Canon of Norwich Cathedral. He is also active as an editor of early Baroque music, and has written extensively on music of that period. Other writings reflect his interest in church music and music pedagogy. Peter has received a number of honorary awards in recognition of his work as a church composer and for services to music education.