Alun Hoddinott

Alun Hoddinott was born in Bargoed, Glamorganshire, in 1929. He won a scholarship to study at University College Cardiff, and later went on to study with the Australian composer and pianist, Arthur Benjamin. He was awarded the Walford Davies prize for composition when he was twenty-four, and was appointed lecturer in music at the Welsh College of Music and Drama in 1951. He later became lecturer at University College, Cardiff and was made Professor and Head of Department there in 1967.
He is regarded as one of the most successful composers to emerge from Wales, embracing almost every musical medium. Essentially chromatic, his music often shows a dark Celtic intensity, manifested in his nocturnal slow movements.

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