Editing Harrison Birtwistle (section)

===Composing career===
Birtwistle served as director of music at [[Cranborne Chase School]] from 1962 until 1965, before continuing his studies at [[Princeton University]] on a [[Harkness Fellowship]], where he completed the opera ''[[Punch and Judy (opera)|Punch and Judy]]'' to a libretto by [[Stephen Pruslin]].<ref name="NPR" /> It was premiered at the [[Aldeburgh Festival]]; [[Benjamin Britten]] is said to have left during intermission.<ref name="Tilden">{{Cite news |last=Tilden |first=Imogen |date=18 April 2022 |title=Composer Harrison Birtwistle dies aged 87 |newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/apr/18/composer-harrison-birtwistle-dies-aged-87 |access-date=19 April 2022}}</ref> This work, together with ''Verses for Ensembles'' and ''[[The Triumph of Time (Birtwistle)|The Triumph of Time]]'', led to greater exposure for Birtwistle in the classical music world. The orchestral work ''The Triumph of Time'', inspired by a woodcut by [[Pieter Bruegel the Elder|Pieter Bruegel]], premiered in 1972.<ref name="Tilden"/>

In 1972, he wrote the music to the film ''[[The Offence]]'', starring [[Sean Connery]], his only film score.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070468/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ql_1|title=Full Cast and Crew list of the movie 'The Offence' provided by IMDb|publisher=[[IMDb]]}}</ref> In 1975, he became musical director of the newly established [[Royal National Theatre]] in London, a post he held until 1983.<ref name="Tilden" /> He received a [[knighthood]] (1988) and was made a [[Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour]] (2001). From 1994 to 2001 he was [[Henry Purcell]] Professor of Composition at [[King's College London]]. Birtwistle was the 1987 recipient of the [[University of Louisville]] [[Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition]]<ref name=grawemeyer.org>{{Cite web|url=http://grawemeyer.org/1987-harrison-birtwistle/|title=1987 – Harrison Birtwistle – Grawemeyer Awards|date=20 July 1987 |access-date=27 March 2022}}</ref> for his epic opera ''[[The Mask of Orpheus]]''.<ref name="NPR"/>

Though well-established in the classical music world, Birtwistle was relatively unknown to the general public until the mid-1990s, when two events increased his profile with the wider audience. In 1994 two anti-modernist musicians, [[Frederick Stocken]] and [[Keith Burstein]], calling themselves "The Hecklers", organised a demonstration at the first night of a revival of his opera ''[[Gawain (opera)|Gawain]]'' at the [[Royal Opera House]], London.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Lister|first=David|date=14 April 1994|title=First Night: Hecklers lose their first night joust: Gawain / The Hecklers Royal Opera House|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/first-night-hecklers-lose-their-first-night-joust-gawain-the-hecklers-royal-opera-house-1370068.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220509/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/first-night-hecklers-lose-their-first-night-joust-gawain-the-hecklers-royal-opera-house-1370068.html |archive-date=9 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=18 April 2022|website=The Independent|language=en}}</ref> The following year, Birtwistle's saxophone concertante work ''[[Panic (Birtwistle)|Panic]]'' was premiered in the second half of the [[Last Night of the Proms]], as the first piece of contemporary music ever,<ref name="Tilden" /> to an estimated worldwide television audience of 100 million.<ref>{{Cite web|date=9 August 2007|title=Panic at the Proms|url=http://www.theguardian.com/music/2007/aug/10/classicalmusicandopera.proms20071|access-date=18 April 2022|website=The Guardian|language=en}}</ref> According to the ''[[The Daily Telegraph|Daily Telegraph]]'', it met with incomprehension from many viewers.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Hewett|first=Ivan|author-link=Ivan Hewett|date=14 July 2017|title=Harrison Birtwistle: the welcome return of a Proms maverick|language=en-GB|work=The Telegraph|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/classical-music/harrison-birtwhistle-welcome-return-proms-maverick/|access-date=18 April 2022|issn=0307-1235}}</ref>

In 1995, he was awarded the [[Ernst von Siemens Music Prize]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.evs-musikstiftung.ch/preise/preise/archiv/hauptpreistraeger/sir-harrison-birtwistle.html|title=Sir Harrison Birtwistle|website=evs-musikstiftung.ch}}</ref> At the 2006 [[Ivor Novello Awards]] he criticised pop musicians at the event for performing too loudly and using too many [[cliché]]s.<ref>Nuala Calvi, [http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/newsstory.php/12741/winning-composer-booed-off-ivors-stage-for "Winning composer booed off Ivors stage for criticising bands"], ''The Stage'', 26 May 2006. Retrieved 2 March 2011.</ref>

Among the musicians who performed his works are conductors [[Pierre Boulez]], [[Andrew Davis (conductor)|Sir Andrew Davis]], [[Daniel Barenboim]], [[Christoph von Dohnányi]], [[Oliver Knussen]]<ref name="NPR" /> and [[Simon Rattle]],<ref name="Clarke" /> violinist [[Christian Tetzlaff]], the soloist in the world premiere of his violin concerto in 2011, and pianist [[Pierre-Laurent Aimard]], the soloist in the first performance of his ''Responses'' for piano and orchestra in 2014.<ref name="NPR" />