Ronald Corp always wanted to be a composer and began composing music even before he was taught to play the piano. There were frequent opportunities for performances at school and University.

The first major work which he today acknowledges is the cantata 'And all the Trumpets Sounded' premiered by the Highgate Choral Society who commissioned it in 1989 and published by Stainer and Bell. Other choral works include Laudamus (1994) performed at St John's Smith Square by the London Chorus to great critical acclaim (the third performance of this work was given in a Gala Concert at the Royal Festival Hall), A New Song, (published by OUP 1999), Mary's Song, (2000) Adonai Echad (2000) and Jubilate(2008). Smaller works include We Will Remember Them, Verbum Patris Umanatur, There is no Rose, Missa San Marco (Stainer and Bell), Christmas Mass (Stainer and Bell) and Forever Child (OUP).

Sainsbury's commissioned Four Elizabethan Lyrics (OUP) for the Farnham Youth Choir, winners of their section of the Sainsbury Choir of the Year. Other compositions for children’s choir include Cornucopia (OUP), a cycle of songs with orchestra (1997), and its successor Kaleidoscope (2002). Both of these have been very successful and have achieved numerous performances. His Christmas opera Wenceslas was premiered in 1982. Of his numerous part songs and carols for children's choir the most notable are For a Child and All Ye Works of the Lord both with instrumental accompaniment, Cradle Song, Flower Songs and Hardy Songs.

He has written many solo songs including the cycles Flower of Cities, Miscellanie, The Music of Whitman and The Music of Wordsworth – the latter with obbligato clarinet.

Orchestral works include and a Piano Concerto (1997) heard in London at St John's Smith Square, at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and most recently at the Cadogan Hall (‘this work is possibly the most winningly successful British Piano Concerto of the last forty years or so' Robert Matthew Walker), Guernsey Postcards, Concerto Grosso and a Symphony. A suite of Purcell arrangements for violin and strings was premiered in 2003 and again in a new version in 2008, and his orchestrations of Satie's Gnossiennes are featured in the film Chocolat.

Of his many instrumental compositions the Homage to Martinu for flute and piano (rev 2003) was performed at a Covent Garden recital and his String Quartet no 1 ‘The Bustard’ was premiered by the Maggini Quartet at the Wigmore Hall in 2008.

In 2003 BBC Radio 3 commissioned a major work for the BBC Singers - a setting of Matthew Arnold's Dover Beach, and this is featured on a disc of Corp’s choral music ‘Forever Child’ on Dutton CDLX 7171 performed by Voces Cantabiles under the composer’s direction.

A concert of Ronald Corp’s choral pieces and songs was given in 2007 at the Wigmore Hall.
 
Large scale community cantatas include Playing with Sun, Urban Voices, Our World, and Waters of Time (Wells Cathedral 2006). He is at present working on a major choral piece for St Edwards School, Romford.

Other new projects include a setting of verses of the Dhammapada, a second string quartet and an opera The Old Woman and the Mountain for the New London Children’s Choir.


Matthew Keegan-Phipps is a composer, performer and teacher based in Villareal, Spain. He has performed as a wind player and singer in a wide variety of musical contexts, notably with Ceilidhography and The Gallery Singers. Having relocated to Spain in January 2017, he is now looking to develop new projects.

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