John Casken: The Composers’ Fund
John Casken (b1949) is a composer from the North of England. He has been a Lecturer at Birmingham and Durham Universities, and Professor of Music at The University of Manchester from 1992-2016. He studied at Birmingham and in Warsaw (1971-2) and it was from this time that he formed a strong and close association with Witold Lutosławski. Performances of John Casken’s works include the BBC Proms and at national and international festivals. He now lives in Northumberland, is Music Director of Coquetdale Chamber Choir and Artistic Director of Alwinton Summer Concerts.
PRS Foundation support was sought for a Recording of Kokoschka’s Doll. The 20th century Viennese painter Oskar Kokoschka is best known for his vivid and vibrant canvases. Alma Mahler, a composer in her own right, is perhaps best known as the widow of Gustav Mahler, and is also known to have had relationships with a number of other men, the one with Kokoschka perhaps the most intense and special. Kokoschka’s Doll traces the artist’s obsession to the point of creating a doll in her likeness, and the recording will capture Sir John Tomlinson’s portrayal of this disturbed and enigmatic artist at a crucial turning point in his life.