About Brian

Brian Knowles was born in Belfast in 1946, was educated at the Liverpool Blue Coat School and began composing at the age of 10. He studied Composition under John Gardner at the Royal Academy of Music 1964-67.

He formed the band ‘Saffron’ in 1970 and within a short time the band was signed by EMI. In 1974 their album ‘Saffron’ was recorded at Abbey Road Studios. The single ‘Charly’ quickly climbed into the charts but further progress was thwarted by a strike at the EMI pressing factory.

Brian subsequently became touring Director of Music for the singer / songwriter Roger Whittaker until 1988. In that year Brian was appointed to the Music Department – and later Composer in Residence – at the Royal Naval School, Haslemere, now the Royal School.

In recent years Brian has set more than fifty famous poems to music and including the well-known First World War poem by John McCrae ‘In Flanders Fields’ from which the poppy emblem is derived. Eighteen songs from this collection have been released on the Signum Classics CD entitled ‘Poetry Serenade’ accompanied by the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra with soloists including the celebrated Elin Manahan Thomas.

In December 2010 his setting to completely new music of the carol ‘We Three Kings’ was performed live on ITV’s Alan Titchmarsh Show to a vast audience. He has recently composed a Guitar Concerto ‘Visiones de Andalucia’, dedicated to his guitarist son Stephen. James Morgan, the conductor, arranger and record producer introduced it to Classic FM’s guitarist Craig Ogden at the Classic Brit Awards. Many in the guitar fraternity have warmly received the concerto.

In May 2014 Craig performed the premiere performance of the concerto which received prolonged and enthusiastic applause from a full house. It has now been released on Rubicon Classics under the title ‘Love’s Philosophy’ and aired on Classic fm. Many songs from Poetry Serenade feature on the album as performed by the tenor James Gilchrist and accompanied by Craig Ogden.