George Newson (27 July 1932 – 8 March 2024) was an English composer and pianist who made important contributions to British electronic and avant garde music during the 1960s and 1970s.
[3] He started to play in modern jazz bands and to compose, while continuing his studies part time at Morley College (1950-53) with Peter Racine Fricker and Iain Hamilton.
[1] In 1955, he won a further scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music under Alan Bush and Howard Ferguson, where he also made contact with contemporaries such as Harrison Birtwistle and Hugh Wood.
In post-graduate studies at Dartington and Darmstadt in the late 1950s he was influenced by radical figures such as Elliott Carter, Luciano Berio, Bruno Maderna and Luigi Nono.
Newson's abstract electronic works of the 1960s evolved towards an avant-garde, post-modern style, incorporating radical collage and theatrical elements, although the basis of his music is often tonal, melodic and lyrical.
The staged oratorio Arena was written for the Proms, performed in the Roundhouse and conducted by Pierre Boulez, with Cleo Laine as soloist and The King's Singers.
There are two self-portraits at the National Gallery in London, and more than 50 others, including portraits of David Bedford, Richard Rodney Bennett, Harrison Birtwistle, Alexander Goehr, Hans Keller, Nicholas Maw, Andrzej Panufnik and Priaulx Rainier.