Biography

Guy Anthony Woolfenden (12 July 1937 – 15 April 2016) was an English composer and conductor. Woolfenden was born in Ipswich and educated at Westminster Abbey Choir School, London, and Whitgift School, Croydon. He studied music at Christ's College in Cambridge and went on to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He subsequently played horn with the Sadler's Wells Opera.

In 1961 he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon, where he was Head of Music from 1963 until 1998. One of the first productions he was involved with there was The Wars of the Roses cycle of Shakespeare plays produced by Peter Hall and John Barton in 1964, for which he created special instruments. In 1976 he composed the score for Trevor Nunn’s musical version of The Comedy of Errors, which transferred to the Aldwych Theatre in 1977. The adaptation won the Olivier Award for Best New Musical.

Woolfenden was Artistic Director of the Cambridge Festival from 1986 to 1991. In 1995 he was a founder director of the English Music Festival which became the Stratford on Avon Music Festival. He was the Chairman of the Denne Gilkes Memorial Fund, a charity which supports young musicians and actors. Woolfenden conducted three productions with the Scottish Opera, as well as the first British productions of Nielsen's Saul and David, Tchaikovsky's Maid of Orleans and Liszt's Don Sanche. He was the founder of the publishing company, Ariel Music.

Woolfenden was awarded the OBE for his services to music in the New Year Honours List in 2007. He married Jane Aldrick in 1962 and they had three sons.