Bayan Northcott

Bayan Peter Northcott (24 April 1940 – 13 December 2022) was an English music critic and composer. Biography Born in Harrow on the Hill, London to Roy and Cecilia Northcott (née Venning) on 24 April 1940 he was educated at Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith. Northcott read English at Oxford University and received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Oxford in 1962. He then taught English from 1964 to 1970 at Chichester High School For Boys. Subsequently he read music at the University of Southampton, where his instructors included Goehr and Jonathan Harvey. Northcott earned a BMus degree from Southampton in 1971. He mentored other composers such as Robin Holloway and Julian Anderson. Northcott served as a music critic for the New Statesman, for The Sunday Telegraph from 1976 to 1986, He also wrote on music for Tempo and BBC Music Magazine. He was a director of the independent recording company NMC. He died in London on 13 December 2022, aged 82. Compositions As a composer, Northcott’s output was modest and mainly scored for small forces. Choral pieces include Hymn to Cybele (1983, performed at the 2010 Proms), the Four Votive Antiphons, Op. 7 (2003, a cumulative cycle), and Canticle: T