Paul Drayton (composer)
Paul Drayton is a British composer, conductor, pianist, and teacher.
He was educated at High Wycombe Royal Grammar School from 1956 to 1962. He studied music at Brasenose College, Oxford, and was subsequently Director of Music at New College School, Oxford. He later taught and was composer-in-residence at Stowe School near Buckingham.
Many of his compositions are vocal. His piece entitled "Masterpiece" was sung by the King's Singers in their 2005 DVD release From Byrd to the Beatles.
He is the author of a listeners' guide to music entitled Unheard Melodies or Trampolining in the Vatican
He now lives in Cornwall where he has lectured at Truro College on both A-Level and International Baccalaureate courses. He is also a lecturer in adult education.
His opera The Hanging Oak, based on a story by M.R. James, was premiered in October 2009 in several church locations in the south-west of England. 2015 saw the premiere of his choral/orchestral work The Passion of Christ as told by Mark the Evangelist, in Truro Cathedral.
He is the Musical Director of Duchy Opera.Works
- New College Service
- Nero
- Six Characters in Search of an Opera
- Lotos-Land
- Pavane
- Choral Prelude and Fugue on "Nun Ruhen Alle Walder"
- Dance in a Desolate Place
- Ecce Ancilla Domini
- The World's Desire
- This Starry Stranger
- Jesu Dulcis Memoria
- My Soul, There is a Country
- The Spacious Firmament
- Templa Quam Dilecta
- Now Glad of Heart Be Everyone
- How Like an Angel
- Come Rejoicing
- Love's Redeeming Work is Done
- Corpus Christi Carol
- The Hanging Oak
- Masterpiece
- The Mermaid of Zennor