Obituary: Terry Edwards, 1939–2022

As director of the groups London Voices, Electric Phoenix and the London Sinfonietta Voices and Chorus, Terry was at the forefront of contemporary music in the 20th century, and worked closely with leading composers Berio, Birtwistle, Ligeti, Cage and many others, commissioning and recording their works. He also spent a period as Chorus Director of the Royal Opera House, working on over 100 productions. His renown as a choral director took him all over the world, working with, amongst others, the Chicago Symphony Chorus, with the Radio Choruses of Denmark, France and Holland; and in Australia with the Chorus of the Sydney Opera House.

It was as director of London Voices with which the LSO worked the most with Terry – on more than 35 projects, including film soundtracks (most notably Star Wars and the recent Battlefront video games, and on several Alexandre Desplat soundtracks), opera and musicals recordings (the first ever together being a Decca recording of My Fair Lady with Kiri Te Kanawa, Jeremy Irons and John Gielgud) and on concerts such as Dr L Subramaniam’s Astral, Datta and Bharat Symphonies to commemorate 70 years of Indian independence.

At 6’9″ Terry was an unmissable figure, towering over everyone and it was this height which gave him his early career on the GB basketball team for the 1964 Olympics. We are all grateful that he took a different career direction! Terry was known for his humour, wit and grace, and there are a number of humerous anecdotes about his life and work in his own words that can be read on the London Voices website.

We send our condolences to Terry’s wife Judy and his family, and all his friends, at the sad time.