Profile:Thomas Motley

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Thomas Motley is a 15-year-old composer, brought up in Derbyshire, UK. He began composing at the age of 9, after joining Derby Cathedral Choir at the age of 8. He has sung in the choir for 7 and a half years first as soprano and currently as an alto. He has gained valuable experience through his participation with the choir, and has sang with them in many UK cathedrals such as St Paul's (London), Ely, Portsmouth, Exeter, Southwell, Leicester, Gloucester, York and Peterborough and has also sung abroad in Notre Dame Cathedral (Paris), Cologne and Bonn Cathedrals in Germany and several churches in the Tuscany Region of Italy, including Florence Cathedral.

He loves all types of music, but especially choral music, and asides from singing, he also plays the piano, tuned percussion and hopes to start playing the organ later this year. Modern contemporary choral music influences his compositions a lot, especially music from Whitacre, Dove, MacMillan, but he is also fond of music from the 'Golden Age' of music (Byrd, Tallis, Gibbons etc), and also from the Leighton/Mathias era of the 20th century.

Motley's notable works include his Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in C (written in 2007 at the age of 13, and first performed by the Derby Cathedral Boys Choir under the direction of Peter Gould in July that year.) His Responses in B-flat are also part of the repertoire at Derby Cathedral, where they received their first performance in July 2008. In 2008, the Belgian choir Voces Capituli and their director Dirk Maes commissioned him to compose Salve Regina, and in Summer 2009, the Derby Cathedral Girls' Choir will give the first performance of his anthem 'O Clap Your Hands'.

To find out more about Thomas Motley's composing work, visit his SibeliusMusic page at: http://www.sibeliusmusic.com/index.php?sm=account.details&uid=131132