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"if there's one reason that we need songs, it's because some things are too big for mere speech.."
Richard Stilgoe is well known as a singer/songwriter, lyricist and broadcaster. In 1985 he founded and continues to run the Orpheus Trust, which devises and runs music programmes designed to help people with physical disabilities. He played an instrumental role in enabling the Trust to open a purpose built centre, part-funded by lottery funds and opened in 1998 to enhance and develop further the Trust's work. Its students now appear all over the country, including the Royal Opera House, the Notting Hill Carnival and the Glastonbury Festival. He also presents the Stilgoe Saturday Concerts at the Royal Festival Hall and was High Sheriff of Surrey in 1998-99.
In the 1980 he was involved in the writing of Cats, Starlight Express and Phantom of the Opera, all of which continue to play all over the world. Schools continue to perform his musicals Bodywork and Brilliant the Dinosaur and a new work, Exit Allan, was performed at the International Festival of Musicals at Cardiff in October 2002. He has presented the Schools Proms since 1988, and passed his 200th appearance on Countdown.
Richard has two Tony nominations, three Monte Carlo Prizes, a Prix Italia, an Honorary Doctorate and an O.B.E. He was recently President of the Lord's Taverners.
Meet the Composer
Young singers from Islington Music Centre chatted with Richard after learning his song.
What gives you inspiration? I don't really think there is such a thing as inspiration. When you are asked to write a song, you just do it.
Did you make the sections fit together so you could build the music? Yes, that's exactly what I wanted to do.
Why did you write about building? I wanted to write a song about how we make our mark on the world.
When you were little did you know that you wanted to be a songwriter? Yes, from quite early on. I had a gran who played the piano really well and I'd sit on her knee and sing her stuff I'd heard on the radio and she would play. She was a surprisingly good rock 'n' roller, my gran! I would sing her Elvis Presley songs and she would play them perfectly happily.
Who else do you write songs for? There's a group of young people I work with, half of whom are wheelchair users; people wrongly assume that they can't sing or make music and we set out to show that they can. However, they have all sorts of challenges to meet and there may be an awful lot of anger to deal with as well. They have a different set of stories and experiences to tell: if there's one reason that we need songs, it's because some things are too big for mere speech - you just have to burst out singing! |
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