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Richard Toop: a short biography
Born 1945 in Chichester, England. Secondary
school studies at
Chislehurst & Sidcup Grammar School (S.E. of London), to 1964. 1961/3,
attended the
Dartington Summer School, where lecturers included Berio, Nono and
Lutoslawski. B.A.
(Mus.) studies at Hull University (1964-67), most memorably with
Gabrieli/Monteverdi
specialist Denis Arnold. Then three years of uncompleted but invaluable
Ph.D. studies on
the origins of European indeterminacy. During this period, various
performances as pianist
including (probably) the first solo performances of Erik Satie's Vexations
(London 1967
& 1968). From 1973-74, Karlheinz Stockhausen's teaching assistant at
the Staatliche
Hochschule für Musik in Cologne. In 1975, emigrated to Sydney, Australia
to take up a
junior lectureship at the Conservatorium (now amalgamated with the
University of Sydney),
where he is currently Reader in Music and Chair of the Musicology Unit.
Publications include a recently published biography of György Ligeti, several analytical studies of works by Brian Ferneyhough and Karlheinz Stockhausen, and more recently of younger composers such as Richard Barrett, Chris Dench, and Robert HP Platz, and entries for the New Grove Dictionary of Opera, as well as several for the forthcoming Revised New Grove Dictionary.
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