Howard Skempton

Born in Chester in 1947, Howard Skempton has worked as a composer, accordionist, and music publisher. From 1967 he studied with Cornelius Cardew with whom he was later to become one of the founding members of the influential Scratch Orchestra. Skempton’s earliest music is associated with the English experimental tradition that, in the late 1960s, grew out of the ideas and music of Satie, Cage, and Feldman. The influence of Webern is also discernible in the extreme brevity and concision of Skempton’s music – a trait still in evidence in many of his works today.