The music of Bernard Rands has firmly established him as a major figure among his generation of composers. His oeuvre of more than one hundred works written in a wide range of genres possess an originality and distinctiveness that has been described as teeming with “plangent lyricism” and “musicality and clarity of idea allied to a sophisticated and elegant technical master.”

Rands was born and raised in Sheffield, England, and studied music and English literature at the University of Wales, Bangor. His early studies in composition were with Pierre Boulez and Bruno Maderna in Darmstadt, Germany, and with Luigi Dallapiccola and Luciano Berio in Milan, Italy. Rands held residencies at Princeton University, the University of Illinois, and York Unive...