One of New Zealand's greatest composers, Lyell Cresswell, has died at age 77 after battling cancer.
Lyell Cresswell Photo: Gareth Watkins / Lilburn Trust / Wallace Arts Trust
Cresswell was born in Wellington in 1944 and has been a full-time composer in Edinburgh since 1985.
He kept close links with New Zealand and his music has been performed here frequently by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the NZ String Quartet, Michael Houstoun and others.
Cresswell's music is widely performed and broadcast, and has featured in many festivals around the world and in New Zealand.
Chair of New Zealand music promotion agency SOUNZ Elizabeth Kerr said he was known for his big orchestral work.
"A fellow Scottish composer once referred to his 'apocalyptic quality.'
"Lyell himself had a great sense of humour and he would have laughed at that word, but he did tell me once he thought his music combined intellect and emotion, and he did that with magnificent skill."
Kerr believed Cresswell never forgot his New Zealand roots and would have wanted to return here in his final years.
In 1979, Cresswell received the APRA Silver Scroll for his contribution to New Zealand music and more recently he was named as one of the Laureate Award recipients in the 2016 Arts Foundation Awards.
In 2002 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music degree by Victoria University of Wellington, and the inaugural Elgar Bursary, according to SOUNZ Centre for NZ Music.
He also took on the role of resident composer for the New Zealand School of Music in Wellington between 2006-2007.
Meanwhile in Scotland, Cresswell was the artistic director of the Edinburgh Contemporary Arts Trust's New Zealand, New Music festivals in Edinburgh in 1998 and 2001.
In 2001, he received a prestigious Scottish Arts Council 'Creative Scotland Award'.
His works have also been recommended by the International Music Council's International Rostrum of Composers on three occasions.
