Compositions

George Hurst as Composer

George Hurst described composition as his ‘first love’ and his first professional activities as a musician related to this, rather than to conducting.  Having been evacuated to Canada during the Second World War, Hurst won the Composers, Authors and Publishers Association of Canada scholarship, and the Canadian Performing Rights Society awards, whilst still in his early twenties. He was engaged as a Professor of Composition at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, USA from the age of 21.   He wrote incidental music on a frequent basis for radio plays, television and the theatre, for the first full-length Canadian feature film, and had a small number of shorter works published by BMI Canada.

Hurst’s activities as a conductor developed, in part, from being invited to conduct his own music, by organisations such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

His music won early praise in the Canadian press, and we reproduce a number of short articles here in addition to a list of his most significant works, both published and unpublished. 

List of Compositions by George Hurst