Richard Toop: a short biography

Born 1945 in Chichester, England. Secondary school studies at Chislehurst & Sidcup Grammar School (S.E. of London), to 1964. 1961/3, attended the Dartington Summer School, where lecturers included Berio, Nono and Lutoslawski. B.A. (Mus.) studies at Hull University (1964-67), most memorably with Gabrieli/Monteverdi specialist Denis Arnold. Then three years of uncompleted but invaluable Ph.D. studies on the origins of European indeterminacy. During this period, various performances as pianist including (probably) the first solo performances of Erik Satie's Vexations (London 1967 & 1968). From 1973-74, Karlheinz Stockhausen's teaching assistant at the Staatliche Hochschule f¸r Musik in Cologne. In 1975, emigrated to Sydney, Australia, to take up a junior lectureship at the Conservatorium (now amalgamated with the University of Sydney), where he is currently Reader in Music and Chair of the Musicology Unit.

Publications include a biography of Gy–rgy Ligeti (Phaidon, 1999), several analytical studies of works by Brian Ferneyhough and Karlheinz Stockhausen, and more recently of younger composers such as Richard Barrett, Chris Dench, and Robert HP Platz, and the Stockhausen entries for the New Grove Dictionary of Opera, as well as several for Revised New Grove Dictionary (including those on Ferneyhough and Stockhausen). 2002 will see the publication of contributions to Musik in Geschichteund Gegenwart, Komponisten der Gegenwart, and the Cambridge History of 20^th Century Music.

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