Geoffrey Poole Recordings

Geoffrey Poole showed prodigious talent as both pianist and composer from childhood, along with a multiplicity of other interests which he retains to this day. He went to the University of East Anglia to study music with Philip Ledger, and after graduating he continued studies at Southampton with Alexander Goehr, Jonathan Harvey and Ric Graebner.  For a while he combined composing with a variety of jobs as labourer, driver, computer programmer and piano teacher, while his scores began to receive broadcasts, major performances and awards. He subsequently undertook further studies with Alexander Goehr at Leeds University.  Poole admires the structural power of classicism but rejects academic forms; his music is informed and moulded by Asian and (especially) African ideas, and makes use of computer-generated sound transformations in some works.  These diverse vectors produce a body of work which is totally individual and authentic.  Leading artists such as the Lindsays have commissioned works from Poole, including the three String Quartets.

As a teacher, Geoffrey Poole is found by his students to be inspirational and held posts at Manchester University since 1976, before being appointed Professor of Composition at Bristol University in 2001, until his retirement from full time academic work in 2009.  Active in many genres, Poole finds his music broadcast and performed regularly. He is especially interested in astrology and the field of astro-musicology and his work includes an ongoing series of piano pieces for each hexagram of the I Ching.