Duncan Druce

English composer, string player and musicologist Duncan Druce was born at Nantwich on 23 May 1939. He played violin in the National Youth Orchestra, studied composition with Herbert Howells at the Royal College of Music, and obtained a double first in music at King's College Cambridge.

In the late 1960s he worked as a music producer for the BBC, and was a sought-after violinist and viola player in the contemporary music field. He was one of the original members of Harrison Birtwistle's Pierrot Players, and played in Music Theatre Ensemble and Fires of London.

He was also a respected viola d'amore performer, and played in The Academy of Ancient Music, the Yorkshire Baroque Soloists and the Pennine Chamber Ensemble, and continued to perform regularly throughout his life.

He produced a new completion of the Mozart Requiem in 1984, and it was performed at the BBC Proms in 1991.

Duncan Druce taught for many years at Bretton Hall, Leeds University, resigning in 1991 to concentrate on performing and composing. He lectured part-time in composition at Huddersfield University until his death on 13 October 2015, aged seventy-six.

A selection of articles about Duncan Druce

Ensemble. A Near-perfect Occasion - Alice McVeigh braves the snow to listen to Fretwork at London's Wigmore Hall