jeremy dale roberts born 1934 in gloucestershire is an english composerhis compositions have been performed worldwide at the edinburgh and aldeburgh festivals the venice biennale the diorama de geneve and the festivals of avignon and paris they include the cello concerto deathwatch written for rohan de saram tombeau for stephen kovacevich croquis for string trio written for members of the arditti quartet bbc commission in the same space nine poems of constantin cavafy written for stephen varcoe lines of life lyric episodes for ensemble written for lontano bbc commission casidas y sonetos del amor oscuro for solo guitar arts council commission for charles ramierezhamadryad for alto flute viola and guitarstelae a work for gamelannightpiece for soprano and two bass violstristia for violin and piano written for peter sheppard skaerved and aaron shorrafter early contact with ralph vaughan williams and gerald finzi dale roberts studied with william alwyn and priaulx rainier at the royal academy of music london he retired as head of composition at the royal college of music london in 1999 and was a visiting professor of composition at the university of iowa for the 19992000 academic yearhis compositions have received attention in the last decade in the context of a 70thbirthday portrait concert given at the purcell room in london by the ensemble lontano in 2004 the release of an associated cd by the same group in early 2005 and most recently by the longawaited release of a complete commercial recording of croquis by nmc recordings one writer has described his style as a kind of ascetically sumptuous exoticism and has further characterised dale roberts music in terms ofthe miniature form and associated possibilities of extended structuringreference to artists and works in other artforms in particular sculpture and paintingthe occasional use of quotation from other composers music albeit in the context of a rather pure modernist idiolect anda fondness for unusual instrumentationsa recent review of the cd recording of croquis noted dale robertss miniatures are brilliantly able to condense a familiar image such as the reel or the fugue and accumulate into a substantial 54minute statementpublisher university of york music press