Peter Crump (1928 – 2009) [founder member of the Central Composers’ Alliance & its brilliant and hard-working secretary from some thirteen years], was a British composer, pianist and teacher. Peter completed a degree at Oxford and studied composition at the Royal Academy of Music. In 1967 he moved to Leicester and taught at Ravenhurst Junior School, Braunstone; King Edward VII Upper School, Melton; and Fairfield School, Loughborough. He combined the latter position with private teaching and in 1976 left the Leicestershire Education Authority to concentrate on private teaching as a Suzuki piano teacher. For many years he was the highly respected music critic of the Leicester Mercury.

Alongside his educational work, he maintained his compositional output and many of his pieces were performed and recorded. These included his Piano Trio in B flat [premiered by the Oxford Trio at a Leicester Museum and Art Gallery lunchtime concert and also played by the Archduke Trio]; Threnody for solo cello & strings [performed by the Proteus Ensemble and written in memory of his daughter Stella who was killed in a climbing accident]; In Dulci Jubilo [an arrangement sung and recorded by Kingfisher Chorale] and March of the Hare for tuba quartet which was performed and recorded by Tubulate. He also contributed music to the Central Composers’ Alliance’s CD Music for a While which was released on St Cecilia’s Day [November 22nd] 2002. These were Four Poems of George Herbert and Berceuse for solo piano. For the Leicestershire Composers’ Concert in March 2002, Peter selected and had performed his Stabat Mater by the Leicester Bach Choir under Giles Turner which he wrote between 1995 & 2001.

[More pieces and biographical detail will be added as it becomes available. Any visitors to this site who have more information – biographical, musical or anecdotal – about this great musician, should contact the Central Composers’ Alliance via David Fisher’s or Tarot Conway’s pages.]

REVIEW from the Leicester Mercury of the PETER CRUMP MEMORIAL CONCERT:

"The late Peter Crump was a remarkable man: composer, pianist, teacher, critic and profound thinker. His endearing eccentricities, intellect and uniques personality are irreplaceable and he is sorely missed, as witnessed by this well-attended concert organised in celebration of his life. As a composer Crump never stopped developing, but all his mature works carry characteristic fingerprints such as unpredictability of rhythm and harmony, sudden dynamic contrasts, spiritual depth, restlessness and, at times, an austere kind of sensuality. We heard four of his pieces: Ave Maris Stella, with its serene upper voices and animated tenors and basses; O Jesulein Suss, an exquisitly harmonised and dynamically expressive arrangment of a famous carol; Hymn to God the Father, a strikingly imaginative and original realisation of words by John Donne and finally, a witty and joyously quirky setting of In dulci jubilo."

Neil Crutchley