Guy Woolfenden

Guy Anthony Woolfenden (12 July 1937 – 15 April 2016) was an English composer and conductor. He was head of music at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon for 37 years, making music an integral part of over 150 productions there. One of the first productions he was involved with there was The Wars of the Roses cycle of Shakespeare plays produced by Peter Hall and John Barton in 1964, for which he created special instruments. In 1976 he composed the score for Trevor Nunn’s musical version of The Comedy of Errors, which transferred to the Aldwych Theatre in 1977. Similarly, the music composed for the 1982 productions of Henry IV Parts I and II was reused the following year as the suite for wind band Gallimaufry, the first of 15 major wind band pieces. Woolfenden was Artistic Director of the Cambridge Festival from 1986 to 1991. In 1995 he was a founder director of the English Music Festival which became the Stratford on Avon Music Festival. He was the Chairman of the Denne Gilkes Memorial Fund, a charity which supports young musicians and actors. Woolfenden conducted three productions with the Scottish Opera, as well as the first British productions of Nielsen’s Saul a