Born in 1934, Sir Harrison Birtwistle is one of the most original voices in contemporary music. His monumental lyric tragedy The Mask of Orpheus was staged at English National Opera in 1986 and won the Grawemeyer Award, and his sequence of remarkable ensemble scores including Silbury Air and Secret Theatre are regularly performed by the world's leading new music groups. Recent years have brought acclaim for The Shadow of Night for orchestra, The Minotaur premiered at The Royal Opera in 2008, and Concerto for Violin and Orchestra premiered by Christian Tetzlaff with the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by James Levine in March 2011.
