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Christopher Wright (30 April 1954 – 4 December 2024) was a British music teacher and composer.

He was born in Ipswich and began composing while still a teenager: his Kyson Point Suite for flute, oboe, violin and cello was performed at Ipswich Town Hall in 1971. He went on to study composition at the Colchester Institute with Richard Arnell and Alan Bullard. He took further composition lessons with Stanley Glasser at Goldsmiths College and with Nicholas Sackman at Nottingham University.

Initially Wright worked as a music teacher and a peripatetic brass teacher at various state and independent establishments and as as a trombonist, piano accompanist and choir trainer in community music activities. But in 1993 illness forced him to withdraw from teaching and he became a full-time composer. In the same year he married his wife Ruth, a violinist. They settled in Woodbridge, Suffolk.

As well as the Violin Concerto, which was recorded by Fenella Humphreys, Wright wrote an Oboe Concerto for Jonathan Small, a Horn Concerto for Richard Watkins and a Cello Concerto for Raphael Wallfisch. His 2015 Symphony (2015), received its first performance at the English Music Festival, Dorchester on Thames, in 2018. Other compositions include much choral and instrumental music, including a series of works related to Suffolk - such as Orfordness for flute, violin, cello and piano, the Woodbridge Pieces for organ, and Four East Coast Sketches for harp. Likewise the orchestral piece The Lost City was inspired by Dunwich and the String Quartet No. 1 by Orford Ness. The four string quartets (all recorded by the Fejes Quartet) span the years 1978 to 2012.

Ruth Wright died of cancer in 2009 and Wright composed his Violin Concerto in her memory. His music has been recorded on the Divine Art/Metier, Dutton Epoch, Lyrita, Merlin Classics and Cameo labels.

Selected works

• Music for Youth, brass quintet (1977)
• Patterns for brass band (1978),
• String Quartet No. 1 (1980)
• Armageddon for large orchestra and tape (1980)
• 'Concertino for violin, orchestra and piano (1985)
• Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis (1993)
• String Quartet No. 2 (1995)
• The Lost City for orchestra (1996)
• Orfordness for flute, violin, cello & piano (1997)
• Idyll for small orchestra (2000)
• In Memoriam for chorus, brass, timpani and strings (2001)
• Threnody for orchestra (2002)
• Woodbridge Pieces for organ (2002)
• Four East Coast Sketches for harp (2003)
• String Quartet No. 3 (2005)
• A Little Light Music: Suite for String Orchestra (2006)
• Searching for cor anglais and strings (2006)
• Spring Overture for orchestra (2007)
• Capriccio Burlesque for string orchestra (2008)
• Divertimento for treble recorder and strings (2008) (for John Turner)
• Momentum for orchestra (2008)
• Missa brevis (2009)
• Oboe Concerto (2009)
• Violin Concerto (2010)
• Horn Concerto (2011)
• Cello Concerto (2011)
• String Quartet No. 4 (2012) (Fejes Quartet commission)

*Legend for orchestra (2013) (English Music Festival commission)

References

1. Notes to Toccata CD TOCC0457 (2020)
2. Christopher Wright biography, Divine Art Recordings
3. Lewis Foreman. Recording British Music (2024), pp. 214-216
4. Christopher Wright: Four String Quartets, Nimbus NI6291 (2015)
5. John Tuner. Obituary, British Music Society, 22 December 2024

• 1954 births
• 2024 deaths
• British composers