Arthur Butterworth

Who is Arthur Butterworth?

Arthur Butterworth MBE is an English composer, conductor and teacher.

Butterworth was born in Manchester. He attended the Royal Manchester College of Music, where he studied composition with Richard Hall and also learned the trumpet and conducting. He served as a trumpeter in the Scottish National Orchestra from 1949–55 and in the Hallé from 1955–62; he also played as a freelance until 1963. In that year he began to teach at the Huddersfield School of Music, an activity which he combined with composing and conducting. He was made an MBE in 1995. He is unrelated to the composer George Butterworth.

His works include seven symphonies, the sixth having its première in St Petersburg by St Petersburg State Capella Orchestra on 15 November 2009. In the summer of 2008 Butterworth returned to the Royal Scottish National Orchestra to conduct a recording of his Fourth Symphony and his Viola Concerto with the English viola player, Sarah-Jane Bradley. He has also composed eight concertos, several other large orchestral scores and a considerable amount of 'serious' music for brass. At 87 he is still active as a composer and an occasional conductor.