The English composer and conductor Sir Peter Maxwell Davies died from leucaemia at his home on an Orkney island. Davies composed from an early age. He studied at the University of Manchester and at the Royal Manchester College of Music and with Goffredo Petrassi in Rome.
Among his works are the ten Strathclyde Concertos for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and a cycle of ten string quartets, commissioned by Naxos. In 2004 he was appointed Master of the Queen’s Music.
An environmentalist, he was also a opponent to the Iraq War and lived openly gay.
