Peter Maxwell Davies

Artist Fred Schley (s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, born 1957)

Date2010

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationsPaintings And Drawings

Dimensions44.8 x 60cm
Frame Size: 49.7 x 64.7cm

AcquisitionPresented in 2011 by the artist.

LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub

Object numberABDAG017406

About MeDutch artist Fred Shley lives and works in The Netherlands and the UK and is particularly associated with Scotland, where he has been inspired to paint some of his most arresting images. He has also painted portraits of several Scots, including poets George Mackay Brown, Sorley Maclean and Mary MacPherson.

Although born in England the subject of this portrait, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies CBE, is also closely associated with Scotland: in his case the Orkney Islands, where he has lived since 1971. Davies, who is a composer and conductor and is currently Master of the Queen's Music, was born in Salford, Lancashire, in 1934. He took piano lessons and composed from an early age and studied at the University of Manchester and at the Royal Manchester College of Music. In 1962, he secured a Harkness Fellowship at Princeton University, with the help of Aaron Copland and Benjamin Britten, where he studied with Roger Sessions, Milton Babbitt and Earl Kim. He then moved to Australia, where he was Composer in Residence at the Elder Conservatorium of Music, University of Adelaide from 1965-66. He then returned to the United Kingdom and moved to the Orkney Islands, initially to Hoy in 1971, and later to Sanday. The now famous St Magnus Festival, was founded by Davies in 1977. He frequently uses it to premiere new works (often played by the local school orchestra).

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Davies, English-born composer, conductor, and Master of the Queen’s Music lived in Orkney from 1971 until his death in 2016.