New Zealand Symphony Orchestra conducted by John Hopkins. Recorded by RNZ Concert, 1960.
Edwin Carr Photo: Supplied
Edwin Carr attended the first Cambridge Music Summer School in 1946, at which Douglas Lilburn was his composition tutor. Various bursaries and scholarships enabled him to further his composition studies in London, Rome, and Munich, with teachers including Carl Orff, Benjamin Frankel, and Petrassi. In 1973–1974 he was University of Otago's Mozart Fellow, and then taught composition at Sydney Conservatorium. He returned to New Zealand in 1984 as a freelancing conductor and composer, and was based on Waiheke Island from 1991 until his death in 2003. In 1954, Edwin Carr spent some time in Rome, working as musical director for the newly-formed ballet company Il Nuova Balletto d’Italia. The director and choreographer, Grant Mouradoff, had at one time been a member of the Diaghilev Company.
While there, Carr collaborated with Mouradoff on 'Elektra' , a ballet based on the ancient Greek tragedy, dramatised by both Sophocles and Euripides. Originally scored for piano and percussion, this orchestral version was adapted for a London production in 1955.
