About me

Peter Fribbins was born in London. After winning a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music, he studied with Hans Werner Henze in London and Italy, and then at Royal Holloway and Nottingham universities. His works are noted for their expressive and dramatic qualities, as well as their attractive memorable melodic lines, and a style developed from a keen awareness of the European and British musical tradition.

Fribbins’s music is regularly performed, broadcast, and recorded internationally, with CD releases on Resonus, Da Vinci, Guild, Sheva, and First-Hand Records. Major recorded works include the Violin Concerto (Philippe Graffin, Robertas Šervenikas, and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra), the Piano Concerto (Diana Brekalo, Šervenikas, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra), and the Cello Concerto (Sebastian Comberti, Jürgen Bruns, and the London Mozart Players). ‘Gommecourt’ a symphony with obbligato piano, based on his grandfather’s experiences in the Battle of the Somme in 1916, was recorded by the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra with Šervenikas and Johan Randvere.

Much of his chamber music has also been recorded, including three string quartets (two recorded by the Allegri and Chilingirian quartets), two piano trios (recorded by the Angell Trio and the Rosamunde Trio) and several sonatas and other smaller chamber works. Many of his pieces draw upon extramusical subjects, for instance with poetry in the wind quintet ‘In Xanadu’ (after Coleridge), the flute sonata ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ (Robert Browning), the second piano trio ‘Softly in the Dusk’ (D.H. Lawrence), and String Quartet No.1 ‘I Have the Serpent Brought’ (John Donne).

Peter Fribbins is Professor of Music at Middlesex University, Artistic Director of the London Chamber Music Society, based at St John’s Waterloo, and co-director of Fenlandia, an annual series of events that celebrates the culture, history, and environment of the East Anglian fens.

String Quartet No.1 performed by the Brompton Quartet in Hertford’s historic Quaker Meeting House