Carlyon Viles

Country of Origin :
England

Operas by this Composer :
Cinderella

CARLYON VILES – Composer/Critic/Baritone/Piano/Horn

I left school with science qualifications, graduating with a B.Sc(Hons) degree in Mathematics from Manchester University. Music had been just a contrasting interest when I first learnt the trumpet, changing over to the French Horn as I became more seriously involved in classical music. I enjoyed participating in orchestras, and especially chamber music at this time, rapidly boarding my listening experiences as well.

It was while I began a career in computer programming that I developed a deeper interst in composition and at a relatively late age, learnt the piano and took further qualifications by private study. I soon embarked on a second degree, a B.Mus(Hons), as an external degree with Durham University, which divided disciplines equally between compositional skills and historical analysis, suiting my maturing interests perfectly.

I am now a teacher of music, accompany and play at functions, and have more recently ventured into singing, particularly opera, madrigals, and comic baritone roles in Gilbert and Sullivan and operetta. I also play the recorder and lute, and am now playing Horn for the Boots Orchestra in Nottingham, as well as wind quintets.

My primary interest is composition where all my varied active and listening experiences have contributed richly. Most recently I have worked on choral settings of the Psalms, in a modern modal idiom, and I am present revising a full-scale opera, Cinderella, commissioned by Porcupine Productions. As a composer, I am completely self-taught, if not in practical skills as well, where I gain inspiration from listening to and studying scores of anything I come into contact with! I have more recently taken to writing reviews and articles on music in general.