GILES SWAYNE was born in Hertfordshire in June 1946. His infancy was spent in Singapore and Australia, his later childhood in the Wirral, in Liverpool, and at a boarding-school in Yorkshire. He began composing when he was ten, and in his teens was inspired and helped by his mother’s cousin, composer Elizabeth Maconchy. He studied the piano with Gordon Green, Phyllis Hepburn-Lee, James Gibb and Vlado Perlemuter, and in 1964 attended Guido Agosti’s classes at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena. On leaving Cambridge in 1968 he won a composition scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music, London, where he studied with Harrison Birtwistle, Alan Bush and Nicholas Maw. On leaving the Academy he worked as an accompanist & repetiteur, and was on the Glyndebourne music staff in the 1973 and 1974 seasons. In 1976-77 he made visits to the Paris Conservatoire to study with Olivier Messiaen.  In 1978 the BBC commissioned CRY for twenty-eight amplified voices. Dedicated to Messiaen en hommage, it was premièred by the BBC Singers under John Poole in October 1980. Widely hailed as a musical landmark, it has been performed many times in Britain (twice at the London Proms, in 1983 and 1994) and many times in Europe and America. The 1985 recording was issued first on vinyl and then on CD by NMC Records.