Staff profile
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Job title: Professor of Music
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Dept: Music and Performing Arts
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Tel: 01227 782579
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Campus: Canterbury
DPhil, Cert. Advanced Composition RCM, Dip. Perf. RCM, ARCM
Paul Max Edlin's music is both colourful and passionate. It moves from sound worlds that can evoke a sense of 'mesmerising spiritual absorption' to others of 'bold spontaneous violence'. Perhaps a childhood brought up in a home full of surreal paintings (his mother is an artist) and grandparents' memories of the operatic stage have helped inform his music. His interests are certainly channeled toward those generated by imagery and drama.
Edlin entered the Royal College of Music in 1981 and studied composition with Edwin Roxburgh, Richard Blackford and Joseph Horovitz and the trumpet with John Wallace. He continued his studies with Michael Finnissy at Sussex University where he took his doctorate. He has won many composition prizes including the IX Premio lnternazionale Ancona.
Edlin's works have been performed both nationally and abroad by leading artists such as Evelyn Glennie, John Wallace, Nicholas Daniel, Rolf Hind, David Campbell, the Bingham Quartet and the Britten Sinfonia. His opera The Fisherman was performed to wide critical acclaim in a production for the London International Opera Festival. Opera Magazine, called Edlin "our latest operatic prodigy".
A major contribution to Edlin's work to date is his large-scale cycle based on architecture from South-East Asia. This cycle includes: Borobudur for large orchestra, Bayon, a five act opera, Prambanam and Banteay Srei. He completed this vast undertaking with a final orchestral work, A Pilgrim of Angkor.
Of his works for chamber forces, Five Fantastic Islands has been performed widely and recorded by Psappha for their 'Fantastic Islands' CD for the British Music label. Major performances in 2006 include his orchestral work Three Old Gramophones, premiered by The Southbank Sinfonia, and a new song cycle for Howard Wong and Hein Boterberg, commissioned by and performed at Da Rode Pompe in Ghent. Major performances in 2007 include his cello concerto, performed by Gabriella Swallow and The Southbank Sinfonia conducted by Nicholas Cleobury, The First Four Trumpets, commissioned by the Park Lane Group in memory of Philip Jones for Bella Tromba, Horizons for guitar, composed for Swedish guitarist Johannes Möller and Firebird for saxophone and marimba, commissioned by Snapdragon and premiered in the Manchester Midday Concerts. Edlin is currently working on several projects, ranging from vocal works to electronic composition. His most recent major project was an operatic setting of Ted Hughes' translation of Federico García Lorca's play Blood Wedding.
Edlin's works have been broadcast on BBC 2, Radio 3, as well as on radio & television abroad. He is Artistic Director of the Deal Festival and has recently been appointed Chair of the Artistc Group of Sounds New, one of the country's leading contemporary music festivals. He succeeds Nicholas Cleobury in this role. He serves on several regional and national arts committees. In 2006 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Edlin's works have been broadcast on BBC 2, Radio 3, as well as on radio & television abroad. He is a founding member of the artistic committee of Sounds New and is Artistic Director of the Deal Festival. He serves on several regional and national arts committees and was recently elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.