The composer: Richard Cooke had the good fortune to study composition with David Lumsdaine, whose music and teaching have been an abiding source of inspiration. Later, with Helen Roe and Nigel Timms, he was a founder member of Soundpool, an Oxford-based composers' cooperative which pioneered new forms of concert programming and, during its first year of existence, premièred more than fifty new works. He has taught music in schools in Yorkshire and London, published numerous articles on new music and has worked as a teacher of English in Italy and other countries.
