My friend, the composer Andrew Downes, who has died aged 72, was a pioneering and original voice in British music. As head of the school of composition and creative studies at the Birmingham School of Music (later the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire) from 1975 until 2005, he was a mentor to generations of young musicians who relished his irreverent humour and inspired teaching.
Andrew’s career as a composer saw a steady stream of commissions and broadcasts, including an overture, In the Cotswolds, for the Three Choirs festival, the Centenary Firedances for the City of Birmingham’s centenary festival in 1989, anthems for the BBC Radio 4 Daily Service and song cycles for the singers Sarah Walker and John Mitchinson on Radio 3. In 1997 Andrew’s overture Towards a New Age was premiered by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Symphony Hall, Birmingham, and a long association with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra led to commissions and premieres in the Dvořák Hall and Rudolfinum, Prague, and a CD box set of Andrew’s symphonies.
