Composer

Biography

John Drummond has been composing opera since his teens, fitting it in as best he can with the other demands of his University career as a music educator, opera director, opera historian, Mozart scholar, and academic administrator.

Born in Lancaster in England in 1944, he graduated from Leeds University with B. A. Hons (First Class) and B. Mus., and went on to complete his Ph.D. at Birmingham University. He has been Blair Professor of Music at Otago University since 1976. He also been heavily involved in music education nationally and internationally. John’s full-length operas include ‘Plague upon Eyam’ (a story of the Great Plague, to a text by Patrick Little), ‘The Birds’ (composed to his own libretto, based on the comedy by Aristophanes), ‘The Stars in Orion’ (a story of the Otago goldfields, again with a text by Patrick Little), and ‘Larnach’ (the story of the builder of Larnach’s Castle). For Sirius Opera in Wellington John has composed a number of shorter salon operas to libretti by Jeremy Commons. His worklist also includes songs and song-cycles, piano works, and choral works.