Antony Pitts

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Antony Pitts, born in 1969 in Farnborough, Kent, is an international composer, conductor and producer. His compositions are published by Faber Music, and CDs of choral music have appeared on Hyperion Records, along with recordings on Harmonia Mundi and Naxos, among others. In 1996 he won the Radio Academy's BT Award for Facing the Radio, an early interactive experiment on the internet. In 2004 he received the Prix Italia for A Pebble in the Pond. He worked as a senior producer at BBC Radio 3 until he left in 2005.

Music and breakthrough

Pitts founded the vocal ensemble Tonus Peregrinus and directs it. The ensemble specialises in early and contemporary choral music, above all sacred music. Among his works are the oratorio Jerusalem-Yerushalayim, which appeared on album in 2017, and Lux Aeterna, a Kontakion of the Departed for Alexander Litvinenko. An earlier recording is the album Seven Letters from 2005. In 2016 he succeeded Roland Peelman as artistic director of The Song Company, Australia's national vocal ensemble. He is the brother of the composer and teacher John Pitts.

Influence

Pitts works on the border between early and new choral music. He shows how a contemporary composer can continue the tradition of polyphonic church singing and still say something new.

Listening

Discography

Studio albums

• 2005Seven Letters
• 2017Jerusalem-Yerushalayim