Cardew, Cornelius

Cardew, Cornelius, English composer of extreme avant-garde tendencies; b. Winchcombe, Gloucester, May 7, 1936; d. in a road accident in London, Dec. 13, 1981. He studied composition with Ferguson at the Royal Academy of Music in London (1953–57); in 1957 he went to Cologne and worked at the electronic studio there as an assistant to Stockhausen (1958–60). Returning to England, he organized concerts of experimental music. From 1963 to 1965 he had private lessons with Petrassi in Rome. In 1967 he was appointed to the faculty of the Royal Academy of Music in London. In 1969, together with Michael Parsons and Howard Skempton, he organized the Scratch Orch., a …