Michael Finnissy was born in London in 1946 and started to write music almost as soon as he could play the piano, at four and a half. He attended Bromley Technical High School and Beckenham and Penge Grammar schools before receiving at the Croydon Performing Arts Festival the William Yeats Hurlstone Composition Prize. He was granted a Foundation Scholarship to study at the Royal College of Music, where his composition teachers were Humphrey Searle and Bernard Stevens and his piano teachers were Edwin Benbow and Ian Lake. Later he was a recipient of an Octavia travelling scholarship to continue his training with Roman Vlad in Italy.
Michael Finnissy worked as a freelancer at the London School of Contemporary Dance, where he founded a Music Department, and worked with such choreographers as Richard Alston, Siobhan Davies, Jane Dudley, Fergus Early, Jackie Lansley and Anna Sokolow. He has been associated as composer with many British dance companies: Rambert, Strider, London Contemporary Dance Theatre, and Second Stride.
From 1969 to 1973 Michael Finnissy appeared at the Gaudeamus Music Week in the Netherlands, then from 1974 to 1976 at Royan Festival in France and Donaueschingen in Germany. For many of these events he was paired with his friend Brian Ferneyhough, with whom he was also partnered at Darlington Summer School in the mid-1970s when he first attempted composition teaching.
His debut as a solo pianist was at the Galerie Schwarzes Kloster in Freiburg. The concert was mostly composed of first performances, of Oliver Knussen and Howard Skempton as well as his own music.
Michael Finnissy received encouragement from Martin Dalby and Colin Mason on his early work. Nowadays his works for piano are renowned for their extreme demands on technique; his music is defined by a range of extremes and opposing binary structures. Michael Finnissy believes that compositions exist within a universe made of the musical and extra-musical concerns of the composer. This “programmatic” vision of music means that it can express political and social themes and become a force for change. Michael Finnissy progressively included more and more of those themes in his music, as are, for instance, homosexual motifs in Shameful Vice (1994) and Seventeen Immortal Homosexual Poets (1997).
In Australia he has been a resident composer for the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in Sydney, the City of Caulfield and the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne.
Michael Finnissy has been a member of the contemporary music ensemble Suoraan and its artistic director since the early 1970s. He joined Ixion in 1987. In these groups he not only played the piano but also conducted concerts. He has been attached to the East London Late Starters Orchestra since its inception in 1982.
In the late 1980s Michael Finnissy was invited by Justin Connolly to join the British section of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM), of which he was the President from 1990 to 1996. He has since received an Honorary Membership.
Michael Finnissy has taught at the Royal Academy of Music, of which he was made a Fellow in 2008, the University of Sussex, Winchester College, Chelsea College of Art, Dartington Summer School, the junior department of the Royal College of Music, and is a guest lecturer at many colleges, academies and universities. Since 1999 he is Professor of Composition at the University of Southampton and was appointed Senior Fellow of the KBC chair in New Music at the Katholieke Universiteit of Leuven in Belgium for two years. That same year, a festival at Harvard University in Boston, was devoted to his music. Several word premieres were performed at the 1999 Music Festival of Bergen in Norway.
In 2005 Michael Finnissy received two British Composer Awards for Molly-House.
He has appeared at the Almeida, Bath and Huddersfield festivals and his works are performed and broadcast worldwide.
Michael Finnissy worked as a freelancer at the London School of Contemporary Dance, where he founded a Music Department, and worked with such choreographers as Richard Alston, Siobhan Davies, Jane Dudley, Fergus Early, Jackie Lansley and Anna Sokolow. He has been associated as composer with many British dance companies: Rambert, Strider, London Contemporary Dance Theatre, and Second Stride.
From 1969 to 1973 Michael Finnissy appeared at the Gaudeamus Music Week in the Netherlands, then from 1974 to 1976 at Royan Festival in France and Donaueschingen in Germany. For many of these events he was paired with his friend Brian Ferneyhough, with whom he was also partnered at Darlington Summer School in the mid-1970s when he first attempted composition teaching.
His debut as a solo pianist was at the Galerie Schwarzes Kloster in Freiburg. The concert was mostly composed of first performances, of Oliver Knussen and Howard Skempton as well as his own music.
Michael Finnissy received encouragement from Martin Dalby and Colin Mason on his early work. Nowadays his works for piano are renowned for their extreme demands on technique; his music is defined by a range of extremes and opposing binary structures. Michael Finnissy believes that compositions exist within a universe made of the musical and extra-musical concerns of the composer. This “programmatic” vision of music means that it can express political and social themes and become a force for change. Michael Finnissy progressively included more and more of those themes in his music, as are, for instance, homosexual motifs in Shameful Vice (1994) and Seventeen Immortal Homosexual Poets (1997).
In Australia he has been a resident composer for the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in Sydney, the City of Caulfield and the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne.
Michael Finnissy has been a member of the contemporary music ensemble Suoraan and its artistic director since the early 1970s. He joined Ixion in 1987. In these groups he not only played the piano but also conducted concerts. He has been attached to the East London Late Starters Orchestra since its inception in 1982.
In the late 1980s Michael Finnissy was invited by Justin Connolly to join the British section of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM), of which he was the President from 1990 to 1996. He has since received an Honorary Membership.
Michael Finnissy has taught at the Royal Academy of Music, of which he was made a Fellow in 2008, the University of Sussex, Winchester College, Chelsea College of Art, Dartington Summer School, the junior department of the Royal College of Music, and is a guest lecturer at many colleges, academies and universities. Since 1999 he is Professor of Composition at the University of Southampton and was appointed Senior Fellow of the KBC chair in New Music at the Katholieke Universiteit of Leuven in Belgium for two years. That same year, a festival at Harvard University in Boston, was devoted to his music. Several word premieres were performed at the 1999 Music Festival of Bergen in Norway.
In 2005 Michael Finnissy received two British Composer Awards for Molly-House.
He has appeared at the Almeida, Bath and Huddersfield festivals and his works are performed and broadcast worldwide.
"What's striking about the music is its feeling of utter spontaneity, and its incredible emotional power [...] the remarkable thing about Finnissy's music is that despite its frequent sorrow and anger, it has a marvellous (sic) power to affirm."
(Ivan Hewett for The Telegraph, March 2006)
(Ivan Hewett for The Telegraph, March 2006)