Edward Tait   |   Composer


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About Edward


Edward Tait is a British composer, currently living in West London. Since being granted a Scholarship to study at The Purcell School, he has studied composition with acclaimed composers Deborah Pritchard, Brian Elias, and currently Jacques Cohen. He has had a number of orchestral works performed with the Purcell Sinfonietta, notably his orchestral interlude Mo Li Hua, as well as Fleeting Manhattan, which will be premiered in St. John's Smith Square in February 2024.


Tait has also had instrumental and vocal performances in numerous locations, particularly in-and-around London, having had two signifcant premieres of his compositions at Hatfield House, in October 2019 and September 2022. He has won prizes at a number of well-respected composition competitions, including the North London Festival, the Chiltern Arts Festival, and the Benslow Music Trust. In March 2023, Tait was fortunate to have his arrangement of Waltzing Matilda performed in the pre-service to the Commonwealth Day Service, in Westminster Abbey. Additionally, he has had his music performed by the Carducci Quartet, the Chorleywood Orchestra, the Kucharsky Quartet, as well as in several concerts which he organized himself at the Purcell School. These concerts have seen the premieres of works like Allegretto for Clarinet and Piano, Herbstlied, and Two Shakespeare Songs.


While being primarly a classical composer, Tait has also recently branched out into writing film and electronic music, having re-scored the 1902 silent film Le Voyage dans la Lune, by George Melies, which is currently in the process of being recorded by members of the Purcell School. Throughout early 2023, he composed the first full arrangement of Holst's The Planets suite for solo piano, which he published through the arrangement-selling website NoteWelder.com. This arrangement was later premiered in December 2023 at the Purcell School. Similarly, he is currently in the process of arranging Debussy's Trois Nocturnes for solo piano.


He has a sideline career in web development, and is the a Partner at the web development company EYP Websites, which builds professional websites for professionals and small businesses. Aside from this job, he created the sheet music website NoteWelder.com, and is the founder of the online debating platform CounterU.com, still currently in development.




"A vivid and imaginative work ... well-written for cello"
- Timothy Bowers

"Wonderful and ambitious, capturing the listener's attention brilliantly"
- Graham Bennett

"Excellent technique, knowledge of repertoire and is a pleasure to teach"
- Jacques Cohen




Longer Biography


Edward Stanley Tait was born in 2006, in Ruislip, West London, into a musical family, with his mother being a professional cellist, and his father, a violin teacher. He first got involved with music at the age of 6, while he was at Whiteheath Junior School, initially taking piano lessons with James Kellas. Furthermore, a year later, he began his study of the cello with his mother, who gave him lessons for several years.


He began composing at around aged 8, idolizing the great composers that he discovered through his instrumental repertoire, including Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mahler, Ravel, and Stravinsky. Over the next few years, he began taking lessons in Composition and Musical Theory, with composer Andrew Melvin, through which he extensively grew his knowledge of repertoire and compositional and musical technique. During these years, his new school, The Beacon School, began to further his opportunities as both a composer and pianist, giving performances of his music in venues across Buckinghamshire. He was also the winner of his Year 6 category of the Beacon Young Musician of the Year, as a pianist, with his performance of Burgmüller’s Ballade in C Minor.


That same year, he was very excited to receive a Scholarship to study at the prestigious Purcell School of Music, in Bushey, with his major study in Composition, giving him the opportunity to study with the acclaimed composers Deborah Pritchard, Brian Elias, and currently Jacques Cohen. Additionally, at Purcell, he has received masterclasses and seminars from Daniel Fardon, Simon Speare, Sylvia Lim, Robert Saxton, Julian Anderson, Judith Weir, Dru Masters and Errollyn Wallen. As a keen 2nd study pianist, he has been developing his pianistic technique under the mentorship of Lidia Amorelli, gaining a Distinction at Grade 8 Piano in 2022. He was also a 3rd study cellist for a couple of years, learning with Julian Metzger.


He has had countless works performed at the Purcell School, during his time there, a number which has increased over the past year, due to the initiative that he has taken to arrange and manage his own Composers Concerts. These concerts have seen the premieres of many notable works, most recently such as his Allegretto and Fantasia-Elegy for Clarinet and Piano, which were both premiered by Tom McDonnell alongside Tait himself on the piano, as well as arrangement of The Planets by Gustav Holst, the first of its kind. He has similar upcoming chamber concerts involving a range of wind, strings, piano and voice, with premieres of works like Herbstlied, for solo piano, and Two Shakespeare Songs, for choir.


In concerts run by the school, he has had his music conducted by Paul Hoskins, Edward Longstaff, and Nicholas Daniel, and has received a lot of coaching of his compositions by well-established musical groups and ensembles, such as the Carducci Quartet, with his 2023 string quartet, titled Passage of Time. His orchestral works, Mo Li Hua and Fleeting Manhattan have both also received premieres by the Purcell School, in venues as diverse as Hatfield House and St. John’s Smith Square.


Tait has won significant prizes at a number of well-respected composition competitions, including the North London Festival, the Chesham Arts Festival, as well as being shortlisted for the Benslow Music Trust. In March 2023, Tait was very fortunate to have his arrangement of Waltzing Matilda performed in the pre-service to the Commonwealth Day Service, at Westminster Abbey. His work in the world of chamber music has led to performances of his music by the Chorleywood Orchestra, the Kucharsky Quartet, and the previously-mentioned the Carducci Quartet.


Stylistically, his music has spanned a wide range of styles over the past couple of years, with his discovery and exploration of new composers, with his favourite composers largely revolving around the late 19th and early 20th century, like Vaughan-Williams, Mahler, Ravel, Holst, Shostakovich, and Tchaikovsky. Over 2023 and 2024, his music began to explore the use of folk and national music as a major factor within his compositions, particularly the style of Scottish and Celtic music, in works like Crenark Hill and Eclogue. Additionally, his music also explores factors of impressionism and neoclassicalism, taking influence from many “abstract” composers like Shostakovich and Ravel, and their orchestral works.


Tait has also done a sizeable amount of outreach work, introducing and nurturing musical development amongst young people in a number of schools across the UK, starting with his first interactive assembly in Bushey Heath Primary School in December 2022. He played a leading role in IMPULSE 2023, an outreach trip across North Norfolk, which he did with The Purcell School, in June 2023. During this trip, he took part in interactive assemblies at schools like Burnham Market, Docking Nursery, and Wells Primary, as well as being involved in concerts at the Yorke Trust, Fulmodeston Christ Church, and the Handa Theatre in Wells Maltings, where he was the lead conductor.


While being primarily a classical composer, Tait has also recently branched out into writing film and electronic music, having re-scored the 1902 silent film Le Voyage dans la Lune, by George Melies, which is currently in the process of being recorded by members of the Purcell School. Throughout early 2023, he composed the first full arrangement of Holst's The Planets suite for solo piano, which he published through the arrangement-selling website NoteWelder. This arrangement was later premiered in December 2023 at the Purcell School. Similarly, he is currently in the process of arranging Debussy's Trois Nocturnes for solo piano.


He has a sideline career in web development, and is a Partner at the web development company EYP Websites, which builds professional websites for professionals and small businesses. Aside from this job, he created the sheet music website NoteWelder, and is the founder of the online debating platform CounterU, still currently in development.



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