Aberdeen composer chosen for prestigious music festival

A composer from Aberdeen University has been chosen to compose a piece to be performed by the BBC Singers at a major arts festival this week.

Thomas LaVoy, a PhD student at the university, has been asked to produce music for the John Armitage Memorial which will be premiered at the Marsh Festival in Kent on Friday.

The honour was granted to Mr LaVoy after a successful debut at Carnegie Hall earlier this year.

The festival has been known to play a key role in propelling the careers of many musicians and would enable LaVoy to showcase his work to “a global audience”.

He has been supervised at the university by renowned composer Paul Mealor, whose music has previously been performed for the Royal Family and the Pope.

Mr Mealor said: “Thomas LaVoy is one of the most exciting of a new generations of composers of choral music and I am delighted that his talent has been recognised by this commission.”