John Woolrich (Cirencester, 10 novembre 1954^[1]) è un compositore inglese.

Woolrich ha fondato un gruppo (il Composers Ensemble), un festival (Hoxton New Music Days) ed è stato compositore in associazione con l'Orchestra di St John's e la Britten Sinfonia. Le sue collaborazioni con il Birmingham Contemporary Music Group hanno portato alla sua nomina nel 2002 come Artist-in-Association.^[2] È stato Direttore Artistico Ospite del Festival di Aldeburgh^[3] nel 2004 e Direttore Artistico Associato^[4] del festival dal 2005 al 2010.^[5] Dal 2010 al 2013 Woolrich è stato sia Direttore Artistico della Dartington International Summer School che Professore di Musica alla Brunel University.^[6] Dal 2013 al 2016 è stato Direttore Artistico di Mirepoix Musique in Francia.

Una serie di implicazioni si intrecciano attraverso la sua musica: l'arte della trascrizione creativa^[7] - Ulysses Awakes, per esempio, è una ricomposizione di un'aria di Monteverdi e The Theatre Represents a Garden: Night, è basato su frammenti di Mozart e un fascino per macchinari e i processi meccanici, ascoltati in molti pezzi tra cui The Ghost in the Machine e The Barber's Timepiece.

Per tutti gli anni '90, Woolrich ebbe una serie di commissioni orchestrali, che portarono ad alcune delle sue opere più significative: i suoi concerti per viola, oboe e violoncello. Un CD dei concerti per viola e oboe dell'etichetta NMC ha attirato particolare attenzione ed è stato "Record of the Week" su BBC Radio 3. Altri brani orchestrali scritti durante questo periodo includono The Ghost in the Machine, presentato in anteprima in Giappone da Andrew Davis e la BBC Symphony Orchestra e Si Va Facendo Notte che il Barbican Centre ha commissionato per celebrare il Mozart European Journey Project.^[8]

Tra i brani recenti figurano Between the Hammer and the Anvil, per la London Sinfonietta, un concerto per violino per Carolin Widmann e la Royal Northern Sinfonia, Falling Down, un concerto per controfagotto per Margaret Cookhorn e la City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra e To the Silver Bow per Leon Bosch e l'Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Più recentemente Woolrich ha composto "A Book of Inventions", una serie di quartetti d'archi su larga scala.

È stato il compositore della settimana di BBC Radio 3 nel marzo 2008.^[9] John Woolrich ha composto "Saying Goodbye at the Edge of the Dark", che è stato eseguito per la prima volta in una scuola altamente prestigiosa sulla costa meridionale nel 2017. Il pezzo parlava di salutare le persone prima di andare in guerra e le emozioni che quelle persone hanno provato. Il pezzo emulava le stesse identiche emozioni che queste persone provavano, ai musicisti che dovevano eseguirlo.

• Ulysses Awakes (1989)
• The Ghost in the Machine (1990)
• A Farewell (1992)
• Viola Concerto (1993)
• Oboe Concerto (1996)
• Sestina (1997)
• Cello Concerto (1998)
• A Shadowed Lesson (1999)
• Bitter Fruit (2000)
• Spring in Winter (2001)
• The Elephant from Celebes (2005)
• Going a Journey (2006)
• Violin Concerto (2008)
• Whitel's Ey (2008)
• Falling Down (2009)
• Capriccio (2009)
• Pluck from the Air (2013)
• Call to the Mirrors (2014)
• The Tongs and the Bones (2014)
• To the Silver Bow, a double concerto for viola, bass and strings (2014)
• The Voices (2014)
• That saying goodbye at the edge of the dark (2016)
• A Book of Inventions (2016–19)

• Call to the Mirrors (2014)
• Fanfare (1994)
• Sennets and Tuckets (1998)

• A Book of Studies sets I and II (1993)
• A Cabinet of Curiosities (1993)
• A Dramolet, for clarinet, cello and piano (2008)
• A Farewell, for clarinet, viola and piano (1992)
• A Leap in the Dark (1994)
• A Presence of Departed Acts, for clarinet, violin, cello and piano (2002)
• A Shadowed Lesson (1993)
• Adagissimo, for piano quartet (1997)
• After the Clock (1989)
• Another Journey Calls (from A Book of Inventions)
• Badinerie (from A Book of Inventions)
• Caprichos (1997)
• Contredanse (1991)
• Cutting a Caper (2001)
• Dartington Doubles (1988)
• Debricollage (from A Book of Inventions)
• Disparition (from A Book of Inventions)
• Envoi, for viola and small ensemble (1997)
• Exploit in White, for brass quintet (2001)
• Fantazia, for viol consort (1994)
• Favola in Musica I, for oboe, clarinet and piano (1990)
• Favola in Musica II, for oboe, soprano saxophone and percussion (1992)
• From the Book of Disquiet (2005)
• From the Shadow (1994)
• Going a Journey (2006)
• In the Mirrors of Asleep (2007)
• In the Stones, for string quartet (2004)
• Kleine Wanderung (from A Book of Inventions)
• Leaving Home, for oboe quintet (2003)
• Lending Wings (1989)
• Music from a House of Crossed Desires (1996)
• My Box of Phantoms, for oboe quartet (1998)
• Oboe Quintet (1998)
• Pluck from the Air, for piano quintet (2013)
• Quick Steps (1990)
• Quiddities (2005)
• Scamander (from A Book of Inventions)
• Sestina, for piano quartet (1997)
• Songs and Broken Music (1993)
• Spalanzani's Daughter (1983)
• Stealing a March (2000)
• Stone Dances (1980)
• String Quartet No. 1 (1995)
• String Quartet No. 2 (2000)
• String Trio (1996)
• Suite from Bitter Fruit (2002)
• Swan Song (2015)
• The Death of King Renaud, for string quintet (1991)
• The Devil in the Clock (2012)
• The Iron Cockerel Sings (1998)
• The Lost Day of Return (2004)
• The Night will not draw on, for piano trio (2008)
• The path is winding (from A Book of Inventions)
• The Turkish Mouse, for oboe and piano (1988)
• The Way Out Discovered (1997)
• Three Arias for Oboe and Six Viols (2001)
• Three Fantasias for Six Viols (2001)
• Toward the Black Sky, for piano trio (1997)
• Villanesca (from A Book of Inventions)
• Watermark, for violin and bass clarinet (2002)

• A Curtain Tune (1996)
• Arcangelo (2002)
• Between the Hammer and the Anvil (2008)
• Cantilena (1997)
• Come and Go (2005)
• Concerto for Orchestra (1999)
• Speed the Going (1998)
• Through paths and turnings (2013)

• A Book of Elegies (1996)
• A Quality of Loss (2014)
• A world is growing green (2016)
• Earth Grown Old (2003)
• Far from Home (1993)
• Little Walserings (1999)
• Over the Sea (1993)
• Paradise (2000)
• Spring in Winter (2001)
• That saying goodbye at the edge of the dark (2016)
• The Old Year (1999)
• The Rolling Years (2000)
• This Change (2003)
• Three Choruses (1998)

• A Sort of Heaven, for violin and piano (2013)
• Darker Still, for flute and piano (2002)
• Dum Spiro, Spero, for accordion (2001)
• Elegy, for cello and piano (2001)
• Four Pieces for Cello and Piano (1994)
• Im Ruhigen Tal, for violin and piano (1993)
• Keepsake, for solo cor anglais (2000)
• Locus Solus, for piano (1998)
• Ostinato, for piano (2019)
• Pianobooks I-XV (1991–2016)
• ....that is Night, for violin and piano (1995)
• The Kingdom of Dreams, for oboe and piano (1989)
• The wakeful Night, for clarinet in A (2019)
• Three Capriccios for Oboe (2001)
• Three Pieces for Viola (1993)
• Three Pieces for Violin (2001)
• Through a Limbeck, for solo viola (2002)
• ....with land in Sight, for solo cello (1994)

• Bitter Fruit (1999–2000)

• A Capriccio to Calliope Herself (2000)
• A Litany, for oboe and strings (1998–99)
• Accord (1999)
• Concerto for Cello (1998)
• Concerto for Oboe (1996)
• Concerto for Viola (1993)
• Concerto for Violin (2008)
• Falling Down, for double bassoon and orchestra (2009)
• Fanfarronada (2002)
• Si Va Facendo Notte, for clarinet and strings (1992)
• Tales of Transformation (2004)
• The Barber's Timepiece (1986)
• The Elephant from Celebes (2005)
• The Ghost in the Machine (1990)
• The Street of Crocodiles, for piano, trumpet and strings (2005)
• The Theatre Represents a Garden: Night (1991)
• The Tongs and the Bones (2014)
• Whitel's Ey (2008)

• Another Staircase Overture (1994)
• Blue Drowning (2005)
• Capriccio (2009)
• Italian Songs (2009)
• It is Midnight, Dr Schweitzer (1992)
• To the Silver Bow, for viola, bass and strings (2014)
• Ulysses Awakes (1989)
• Variation on 'Sellinger's Round' (2013)

• A Paper of Black Lines (2008)
• A Singing Sky (2009)
• Ariadne Laments (1994)
• Berceuse (1990)
• Black Riddle (1984)
• Cascades (1983)
• Five Italian Songs (1984)
• Four Concert Arias (1994)
• Four Songs after Hoffmann (1981)
• Good Morning – Midnight (2002)
• Harlequinade (1983)
• Here is My Country (1995)
• La Cantarina (1989)
• Light and Rock (1988)
• Malicious Observer (1995–96)
• Ophelia Songs (1988)
• Serbian Songs (1988)
• The Sea and its Shore (2004)
• The Unlit Suburbs (1998)
• The Voices (2014)
• Three Cautionary Tales (1990–94)
• Three Macedonian Songs (1984)
• Three Purcell Songs, arranged for high voice and strings
• Three Songs for alto and six viols (2001)
• Three Songs for mezzo and strings (2003)
• To Witness her Goodbye (1995)
• Twisting that Lock (1997)

• Beyond Britten: The Composer and the Community (edited by Wiegold and Kenyon), The Boydell Press (2015) ISBN 978-1-84383-965-1
• John Woolrich, in New Aldeburgh Anthology, The Boydell Press (2009): "Composing a Concert" ISBN 978-1-84383-439-7
• David Wright 'Compact Risks: John Woolrich's Economic Policy of Composition', The Listener (3 August 1989)
• David Wright 'John Woolrich: Expanding Continuities', Musical Times, cxxxi (1990)

• (EN) Sito ufficiale, su johnwoolrich.com.
• (EN) John Woolrich, su Discogs, Zink Media.
• (EN) John Woolrich, su MusicBrainz, MetaBrainz Foundation.
• (EN) John Woolrich, su IMDb, IMDb.com.
• John Woolrich - Biography, su johnwoolrich.com. URL consultato il 28 novembre 2020 (archiviato dall'url originale il 6 dicembre 2020).
• (EN) Faber Music, su fabermusic.com. URL consultato il 28 novembre 2020.
• (EN) Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, su Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. URL consultato il 28 novembre 2020.
• (EN) Britten Sinfonia - one of the world's most celebrated ensembles, su Britten Sinfonia. URL consultato il 28 novembre 2020.
• (EN) Home, su A Book of Inventions. URL consultato il 28 novembre 2020.

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