We regret to inform members of the death on January 13th of the versatile musician, Elgar Howarth.  A trumpeter, composer and later, conductor of repute, he studied at the Royal Northern College of Music  (as it was then called) where his fellow students were Harrison Birtwistle, Peter Maxwell Davies, Alexander Goehr, John Ogdon and  David Ellis.  He was the last survivor of this group known as “New Music Manchester” who were committed to promoting contemporary music. 

He had been taught to play the cornet and trumpet by his father, and was immersed in the world of brass bands for whom he wrote or arranged a considerable amount of music, among which was his notable arrangement of  Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition”.  As a trumpeter he played the opening bars of Tippett’s “King Priam” in Coventry in 1962 and later went on to conduct the entire opera for English National Opera.  He also conducted four major operas by his old colleague, Harrison Birtwistle. He became Principal Guest conductor at Opera North from 1985 – 1988 where he gave the British premiere of Nielsen’s “Maskerade”.

He has a large discography, ranging from a famous recording of “Pierrot Lunaire” with Cleo Laine, Stravinsky’s “Dumbarton Oaks” and “A Soldier’s Tale” amongst other of his works, and music by Copland and Hindemith.

See obituary on Guardian website.

Photo credit: By Tom Yates at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=77963434