David Bedford (1937-2011) was an English composer born in London into a musical family; his grandmother was composer Liza Lehmann and his mother, soprano Lesley Duff, sang with the English Opera Group. He studied with Lennox Berkeley at the Royal Academy of Music and with Luigi Nono in Venice. Over a long career he received commissions from major orchestras, festivals and ensembles, including the Royal Philharmonic, London Philharmonic and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic orchestras, and the BBC Proms. Known for experimental and graphic-notation works and music for young players, he wrote extensively for wind orchestra, beginning with Sun Paints Rainbows on the Vast Waves (1982). He also famously orchestrated Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells. Bedford chaired the Performing Right Society and died in 2011.
