Alexander Goehr, Composing a Life

Jack Van Zandt (b. 1954) is a Grammy-winning composer of music for concerts, film and TV, and a music educator, based in Los Angeles and Ireland. He is a former pupil, as well as musical and teaching assistant to Alexander Goehr, having studied and worked with him in Cambridge between 1976 and 1985. He was recently a music faculty member at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, and California Institute for the Arts (CalArts). He is a new music concert producer in Los Angeles, and a founder and co-director of the Beyond Opera Collective. Sally Groves worked in music publishing from 1970 to 2014, mainly with Schott Music, where she was Creative Director in London for many years. She has always served on musical boards and trusts. She currently chairs Opera Ventures, the Vaughan Williams Foundation, and the Music Libraries Trust, is a governor of the Royal Society of Musicians, and a trustee of the Michael Tippett Musical Foundation and the Peter Maxwell Davies Trust, as well as of various ensembles. She was awarded an MBE for services in music in 2016. Alexander ('Sandy') Goehr is a British composer and Emeritus Professor of Music at Cambridge University. He was born into a Jewish musical family in Berlin in 1932. His father, Walter Goehr, was a composer and conductor, and a pupil of Arnold Schoenberg. His mother, Laelia, trained as a pianist at the Kyiv Conservatory. Goehr is one of Europe's most important music educators. He was a lecturer at Southampton University, Professor of Music at Leeds University and finally the Professor of Music at Cambridge University for more than twenty-five years.