The Shakespeare Suite

David Stoll

Solid Strings - Sonia Slany, Jacqueline Norrie, Sophie Renshaw and Nick Cooper.

Soloists - Melinda Maxwell (oboe) Anna Noakes (flute) Pip Eastop (horn) Shelagh Sutherland (piano) Martin Robertson (clarinet) John Orford (bassoon)

Introduction, Biography, Track details, Audio files, Reviews

DAVID MICHAEL STOLL was born in London in December, 1948. He was educated at Oxford University, where he held the Hadow Scholarship in composition at Worcester College, and at the Royal Academy of Music, London.

Stoll's work is very varied. His concert music includes works for orchestra, choir and much chamber music. His Cantatas THE BOWL OF NOUS and WHO, IF NOT I? were both premiered in May '98, the former in London and the latter in Sydney. The first STRING QUARTET was premiered in Toronto in June '98. Recent commissions include, MOTET IN MEMORIAM for large choir and MIDWINTER SPRING, an orchestral work. David Stoll's latest commission is for a CELLO CONCERTO for performance in London in 2000.

Stoll was one of the composers commissioned to write for the 'UK Year of Opera and Musical Theatre, 1997'. His one-act opera about the Tudor composer, William Byrd - FALSE RELATIONS - was premiered in Lincolnshire in March '97 by Wide Angle Voice Theatre, and is still in repertoire; there was a gala performance in Lincoln Cathedral in October '97. Stoll co-wrote the music for TELLER OF TALES, the musical about Robert Louis Stevenson, which played both in Edinburgh and California in 1994. April 1998 saw the first production of the AandBC Theatre Company's highly acclaimed IF I WERE LIFTED UP FROM EARTH for which Stoll wrote the music. His most recent theatre score was for a new production of PERICLES in Canterbury and London in the summer of 2000.

Although best known for his concert and theatre work, Stoll's music for television and radio is also familiar around the world. He has written many songs for children and his signature tunes introduce several popular language teaching courses. He has also written and recorded much production music - orchestral, chamber and electronic - which is regularly used in television programmes around the world.

David Stoll, who is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, recently retired as co-Chairman of the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters. He was the founding Director of In Tune In Europe, an ongoing Seminar for European Composers and Songwriters, and he sits on the Board of several other music organisations. He has a keen interest in philosophy, which is often reflected in his music.