Geoffrey Burgon
The English composer and jazz trumpeter Geoffrey Burgon was born on 15 July 1941 in Hampshire. He taught himself to play the trumpet whilst at school, and studied at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama, initially intending to be a trumpeter, but discovering that composition was his greater interest.
He made a living as a jazz trumpeter during his twenties, but later turned to composition full time. Working for one or two months a year for the film and TV industries, he was able to devote much of his time to serious composition.
His Requiem, performed at the 1976 Three Choirs Festival, brought him to the notice of various organisations, who then commissioned him. A well-known Nunc Dimittis featured in the BBC Television spy thriller Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy in 1979 won him an Ivor Novello Award, and City Adventures, a percussion concerto for Evelyn Glennie, was first performed at the 1997 BBC Proms.
Burgon died on the evening of 21 September 2010, aged 69.