ALEXANDER TILLEY

Alexander (Reid) Tilley. Educator, composer, conductor, b St John’s, Nfld, 8 Nov 1944; B SC (McGill) 1965, BA (Sir George Williams) 1966, B MUS (McGill) 1970. He was raised in Montreal and studied composition with Istvan Anhalt and Bruce Mather and double-bass with Tom Martin. In 1971 he joined the music dept of the Halifax City District School Board as a music specialist teacher, advancing to assistant supervisor 1975-80, acting supervisor 1978-9, and founder of the department’s Experimental Music Studio.

Tilley has composed or arranged over two dozen choral pieces for school or church use, including Songs for the School Year (commissioned by the NSMEA 1982 and published by Harris, 1985-6) from which ”In Flanders Fields’ has achieved national notice; Winter Games Fanfare (composed for the closing of the 1987 Canada Winter Games); and various settings of biblical texts, carols, and folk songs from the Helen Creighton collection. His music for the film Life Classes won the award of merit as best original score at the Atlantic Film Festival in 1987.