Marcus Tristan Heathcock was born in Stourbridge, UK, in June 1967 and he started composing at an early age. He went through school and college writing music for the orchestras, choirs and other ensembles, and the King Edward VI Sixth Form College Symphony Orchestra won first prize at the National Festival of Youth Music in London in 1987 for their performance of his Variations for Piano, Percussion and Two Orchestras. He studied composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Hans Werner Henze and Justin Connolly. In 1989, along with three other students of Henze, he composed an opera called Annabella, which was premiered at the Montepulciano International Opera Festival, Italy, in August 1989. He took some private consultation with Olivier Messiaen in 1990. He was visiting professor of composition at the Cluj-Napoca Academy of Music in Romania during the Autumn of 1991 and became conductor of the Halesowen Orchestra in the UK in 1992, where he premiered works by local composers and put on a performance of his Symphony-Lamentations (no 4) with the Clent Festival Singers in 1995.
In 1995, he moved to St Petersburg, Russia, where his music was often heard in many different venues, including at the St Petersburg Festival of New Music. He became composer-in-residence at the St Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra Klassika in 2003 after they had premiered his Measure for Measure at gala concert to celebrate the birthday of William Shakespeare. He has composed his last 3 symphonies for them, no 8 having been premiered in February 2007. He is currently working on a Sinfonia Concertante for Bassoon and Orchestra for premiere in 2008. In recent years, he has had fruitful working relationships with both the Fitzwilliam String Quartet from the UK (Shostakovich?s favourite non-Russian interpreters of his quartet music) and with Coro Odyssea, for whom he is currently composing a Symphony for Voices for performance in Spring 2008. (Hide extended text) ... (Read all)
