Composer with connection to British royalty dies aged 81

Peter Maxwell Davies, the composer, conductor and former holder of the title Master of the Queen's Music, died on Monday.

Maxwell Davies died of leukemia at his home in Orkney, Scotland at the age of 81, and will be best remembered for his compositions for orchestra and the opera house. In total, he wrote 10 symphonies among many other works.

Maxwell Davies had been a leading figure in the classical music scene since the late 1950s when he first made his reputation as an avant garde composer, who along with other notable composers including Harrison Birtwistle formed the Manchester Composers.

He was a conductor with an international reach, serving as guest conductor with the San Francisco Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus, as well as holding similar positions with leading British orchestras including the Royal Philharmonic, the BBC Philharmonic and the Philharmonia.

From 2004 to 2014 he served as Master of the Queen's Music, an honorary position which also requires the holder to write music for state occasions if required. Two of his compositions were used during the marriage ceremony of Prince William and Kate Middleton in 2012.

Among those organizations and individuals paying tribute to Maxwell Davies was the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO), which is to perform one of his works, an opera for children, this summer.

Kathryn McDowell, LSO managing director, said: "We are grateful for the opportunity to have worked with this extraordinary composer in his later years -- with the Tenth Symphony in 2014 and the children's opera, 'The Hogboon', which he worked on during his illness and which we will premiere in June this year."

"His vision for music education and the wealth of wonderful pieces he has left for young people is unparalleled in recent times. He will be sorely missed," said McDowell. Endit