Biography
Photo: Andrzej Wawrowski
Liz Lane started composing at an early age and received widespread media coverage as a child composer, including an ITV television documentary And I Write Music and a televised performance by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Her music has been widely played throughout the UK and abroad by performers including the Orchestra of Welsh National Opera, Andrew Kennedy, Carducci Quartet, Andrew Staples, London Children’s Ballet, The Bach Choir, Hexham Abbey Choir, Wells Cathedral Voluntary Choir and Chinook Winds, Seattle and at venues including Wales Millennium Centre, Royal Albert Hall, Fairfield Halls Croydon, Peacock Theatre London, Barcelona Cathedral and Old Dominion University, Norfolk, USA. Recent premieres include Somewhere Unknown by the Orchestra of Welsh National Opera, Linear Lines (for solo horn), performed at a series of lecture-recitals in the USA by the horn player Marlene Ford and Jaleo, premiered by the Carducci Quartet.
Liz graduated from Cardiff University and subsequently achieved a postgraduate diploma from the Royal College of Music; since then, she has pursued a portfolio career of composing, arranging, performing (horn and percussion), teaching and lecturing. She worked extensively with the late composer and explorer David Fanshawe; published collaborations include arrangements of The Lord's Prayer (recorded by the Black Dyke Band and Bristol Cathedral Choir) and orchestra (performed by Orchestra of Opera North and the Northern Sinfonia) and is now Composition Advisor for Fanshawe One World Music. Liz has also arranged music for cult Bristol band The Blue Aeroplanes. In 2009, she engraved and edited for publication the original song manuscripts of the composer Muriel Herbert (1897-1984, recorded by Ailish Tynan, James Gilchrist and David Owen Norris on Linn Records) and recently gave two public lectures about her work entitled Musical Industry, Inspiration and Innovation: A Composer's Perspective.
Liz was awarded a PhD in Composition from Cardiff University in March 2010, where she now works as an Associate Lecturer; she also teaches at the University of the West of England and the Open University. Current and future projects include: a piece for the harpsichord maker and performer Colin Booth; music for the Symphonic Brass of the RAF inspired by Berkeley Castle; a work and fanfare to celebrate the opening of a new museum which will house the conserved hull of the Mary Rose, Portsmouth; and a community education project for the Presteigne Festival in 2012.