John Gardner, 1917-2011, composer of “Dancing Day”

John Gardner was born on 2nd March 1917 and died on 12th December 2011. He is best known for his setting of Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day, but with a professional career which began in 1951 with the success of his First Symphony under Barbirolli at the Cheltenham Festival, he has a catalogue of 249 opus numbers, and there is plenty more music which deserves to be heard.

 

His 90th anniversary inspired many performances of his works, many of which were attended by the composer, and was marked by the release on Naxos of his Symphony No.1, Piano Concerto and the Overture Midsummer Ale.

 

John Gardner died on 12th December 2011. He succumbed very quickly to a chest infection and died in the afternoon at a Nursing Home in Liss Forest, Hampshire.