Of Irish ancestry and the daughter of the composer Elizabeth Maconchy, Nicola Lefanu studied at Oxford and at the Royal College of Music, with further study in the United States with Earl Kim. She taught for some years at King’s College, London, and in 1994 was appointed professor of music at York University.

Stage Works

Lefanu’s stage works range from the 1972 ballet The Last Laugh to the children’s opera The Green Children, Blood Wedding (based on the play by Lorca) and The Wildman.

Vocal and Instrumental Music

Lefanu’s Clarinet Concertino expands her earlier Clarinet Quintet ‘Invisible Places’, which drew inspiration from the work of Italo Calvino. Her Canción de la luna is based on an episode in Blood Wedding, while Catena, suggested by the mountain chain of the Pyrenees, is also a tribute to the composer Donald Sur.