Tim Crompton studied Music at the University of East Anglia, where he held
the Norwich Union and Leslie Trafford scholarships, enabling him to study
piano with Christopher Green-Armytage of the English Horn Trio. While in
Norfolk he was much in demand as a pianist, accompanist and violinist, and
took part in masterclasses for both accompanists and accompanied
instrumentalists, with such performers as Emanuel Hurvitz, Piers Adams and
Anthony Saunders.
Apart from piano as his main study, he also specialised in Electroacoustic
Composition, Orchestration and Conducting. In his final year he wrote a
dissertation on the manifestation of death in Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10
and Piano Trio No. 2, performed in over fifty solo and chamber recitals, and
toured with the Contemporary Opera Group in their production of Peter
Maxwell Davies’s opera The Lighthouse, playing grand piano, out-of-tune
upright piano, plucked piano strings, celeste, flexatone and referee’s
whistle.
While at university, he was also director, pianist and arranger of the UEA
Big Band, and for several years after graduating he made a living from
arranging and performing a wide variety of music, from playing violin and
viola in string quartets and orchestras to keyboards in funk bands.
Tim is now Technical Support Manager for a global market research company,
providing TV Ratings software to TV broadcasters and media agencies, but he
still finds time to play both piano and violin. As a violinist, he is a
regular member of the Ealing Symphony Orchestra and the Amadeus Orchestra, and
frequently plays with other orchestras and ensembles. February’s concert will
be his second appearance as soloist with the ESO.
January 2004