Sir Peter Maxwell Davies born 8 September 1934Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, CBE), is an English composer and conductor.
Davies was born in Salford, Lancashire. He took piano lessons and composed from an early age. After education at Leigh Grammar School, he studied at the University of Manchester and at the Royal Manchester College of Music (amalgamated into the Royal Northern College of Music in 1973), where his fellow students included Harrison Birtwistle, Alexander Goehr, Elgar Howarth and John Ogdon. Together they formed New Music Manchester, a group committed to contemporary music. After graduating in 1956, he briefly studied with Goffredo Petrassi in Rome before working as Director of Music at Cirencester Grammar School from 1959 to 1962.
After a further period of study on a Harkness Fellowship at Princeton University Davies moved to Australia, where he was Composer in Residence at the Elder Conservatorium of Music, University of Adelaide from 1965-66.
He then returned to the United Kingdom, and moved to the Orkney Islands, initially to Hoy in 1971 and later to Sanday where he lives with his partner Colin Parkinson. Orkney (particularly its capital, Kirkwall) hosts the St Magnus Festival, an arts festival founded by Davies in 1977. He frequently uses it to premiere new works (often played by the local school orchestra).
Davies was Artistic Director of the Dartington Summer School from 1979 to 1984 and has held a number of posts. From 1992 to 2002 he was associate conductor/composer with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and he has conducted a number of other prominent orchestras, including the Philharmonia, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.
He has been awarded a number of honorary doctorates at various institutions. He has been President of Making Music (The National Federation of Music Societies) since 1989. Davies was made a CBE in 1981 and knighted in 1987. He was appointed Master of the Queen's Music for a ten-year period from March 2004. Oxford University awarded him an honorary Doctor of Music degree in July 2005. On 25th November 2006 Sir Peter was appointed an Honorary Fellow of Canterbury Christ Church University at a service in Canterbury Cathedral. He is also a professor of composition at the Royal Academy of Music.
Davies is openly gay and has a keen interest in environmentalism. In 2007, there was a controversy around his planned Civil Partnership when he was told that the ceremony could not take place on Sanday. He later abandoned his plans.
Davies' surname is 'Davies'; 'Maxwell' is his middle name, and he is known informally as 'Max'.
Davies is a prolific composer who has written music in a variety of styles and idioms over his career, often combining disparate styles in one piece. His work includes symphonies, concerti, chamber music, opera, ballet music and classical songs, as well as various pieces for children.
Since his move to Orkney, Davies has often drawn on Orcadian or more generally Scottish themes in his music. Additionally he wrote the scores for Ken Russell's films The Devils and The Boy Friend.