John Godfrey

Who was John Godfrey?

John Godfrey is a composer and performer, co-founder and musical director of Icebreaker, founder member of Crash Ensemble, founder of the Quiet Music Ensemble, and lecturer in music at National University of Ireland, Cork.

John Godfrey studied with Oliver Knussen at the Royal College of Music, Peter Maxwell Davies at the Dartington Summer School and with Richard Orton at the University of York, where he graduated with a BA Hons in music and an MPhil in composition.

In 1989 he and another York graduate, James Poke, formed the new-music group Icebreaker, which went on to become one of the most successful ensembles in its field, appearing extensively in Europe and America. The group made several CDs for Decca Argo, New Tone and Donemus, which include John's works Euthanasia and Garden Instruments, S U S Y W I M P S and "Gallows Hill", as well as his arrangements of Diderik Wagenaar's Metrum and Steve Martland's Shoulder to Shoulder. John appears as a performer on all Icebreaker's CDs up to and including Rogue's Gallery.

In 1997, John was invited to join the Crash Ensemble.