NICHOLAS MAW, 73
Composer taught at the Peabody
British composer Nicholas Maw, who taught music composition at the Peabody Conservatory from 1998 until last year and who was known for his opera based on the novel Sophie's Choice, died Tuesday of heart failure in his Takoma Park home.
Mr. Maw's neo-Romantic, post-modernist compositions were praised for their rich textures. His creations "forged a musical language which is truly vibrant and sensuous, and which borrows both from the old and the new," wrote David Cooper in the International Dictionary of Opera.
Mr. Maw finished in his Takoma Park home what became one of his best-known works: Odyssey. The 96-minute symphony opened in London in 1987. It took Maw 14 years to write and is believed to be the longest continuous orchestral music ever composed.
