Francis Pott

Francis Pott [b.1957] has acquired an international reputation over the past thirty years. His dramatic, challenging music unites a distinctive personal voice with a highly-disciplined but versatile technique rooted in a keen awareness of the past. To date his works (including a steady flow of major commissions) have been heard in concert and on radio across the UK and in over forty countries worldwide. They have been published by such major houses as Ricordi [UK], Novello [Music Sales], United Music Publishers and Oxford University Press. In December 2013 Francis signed an exclusive agreement with Edition Peters (London, Frankfurt, Leipzig and New York) which entails publication of all his future choral and organ works and of his hitherto-unpublished back-catalogue. An increasing range of his piano and chamber music is published by Composers Edition.

Francis began musical life as a chorister at New College, Oxford. He held Open Music Scholarships at Winchester College and then at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he studied composition with Robin Holloway and Hugh Wood while also pursuing piano studies privately in London with the distinguished British artist, Hamish Milne. After six years teaching in the independent secondary sector, he became a tutor in composition for the University of Oxford, gradually expanding his remit until he was teaching for over half of its colleges. Throughout the 1990s Francis was John Bennett Lecturer in Music at St Hilda’s College, Oxford, and also a bass lay clerk in the Choir of Winchester Cathedral, under the directorship of Dr David Hill. In 2001 he relinquished these roles to become Head of London College of Music, University of West London, later leading Research across the University’s wider Faculty of Arts and acceding in 2007 to its first ever Chair in Composition. In addition to his current Professorship he holds MA and MusB degrees from the University of Cambridge, a Fellowship of London College of Music [FLCM], a PhD and a Principal Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy [PFHEA]. In September 2018 Francis voluntarily semi-retired from his university post in order to devote more time to composition.