Biography
Liz Lane’s diverse output of commissioned music ranges from a 40 minute song cycle to celebrate a 40th wedding anniversary to an 80 minute ballet performed in the West End of London and a fanfare for the UK tour of Uganda’s only brass band; her music has been described as: “spell-binding…. touched the very core of one’s heart” [David Fanshawe – composer and explorer], “quite simply – brilliant! Wonderfully evocative and memorable” [West Sussex County Gazette] and “easily appealing, yet musically reputable” [Musical Times].
Liz started writing music 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 of her Sinfonietta for Strings by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Since then, her compositions and arrangements have been played throughout the UK and abroad by performers such as the London Childrens’ Ballet, Bournemouth Symphony Chorus, Black Dyke Band, Chinook Winds (Seattle), Carducci Quartet and the tenor Andrew Kennedy at venues including the Bridgewater Hall Manchester, Cadogan Hall London, Colston Hall Bristol, Miami Convention Centre, Bristol and Barcelona Cathedrals. Liz's most recent commissions and performances include the song cycle Words, Wide Night, which received its first public performance at a Cardiff University Tuesday Night Concert in April 2007. Following a successful US premiere in Seattle in June 2006, Why Cats Sit on Doorsteps in the Sun for wind dectet, piano and narrator received a second UK performance last year. Though Time Conceals Much, a recently commissioned anthem for unaccompanied SATB voices, will be performed at Hexham Abbey Festival later this year.
She regularly works with the composer and explorer David Fanshawe; recent published collaborations include Pacific Song, premiered in Miami in 2007 and the brass band arrangement of The Lord’s Prayer from African Sanctus which she is currently arranging for orchestra. Liz has also arranged music for cult Bristol band The Blue Aeroplanes’ albums Life Model and Friendloverplane2.
Following her early experience as a child composer, Liz took a break from music in her late teens and pursued a variety of administrative jobs; however, her interest in composing was rekindled when she studied for a degree in music at Cardiff University in her early twenties. From there, she developed a musical career which included composing, performing (horn and percussion) and teaching (Assistant Director of Music and Composer in Residence); during this time she also studied for a Postgraduate Diploma at the Royal College of Music with Edwin Roxburgh and Julian Anderson.
Liz is currently completing a PhD in Composition at Cardiff University with Anthony Powers, where she also works as an Associate Lecturer; in addition, she is a Visiting Lecturer at the University of the West of England, teaching modules in Music Composition and Performance. Current and future projects include completing a symphonic work for her PhD, further collaborations with David Fanshawe and a large scale oratorio for soloists, choir and orchestra.