{{Short description|British and New Zealand pianist, conductor and composer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}} {{Use New Zealand English|date=August 2021}} '''Frank Anderson Tyrer''' (17 November 1891 – 16 December 1962) was an English concert pianist, composer and first conductor of New Zealand's National Orchestra.
== Biography == Tyrer was born in Accrington, Lancashire in 1891 and studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Thomson|first=John Mansfield|title=Biographical dictionary of New Zealand composers|date=1990|publisher=Victoria University Press|isbn=0-86473-095-0|location=Wellington [N.Z.]|pages=139|oclc=22895790}}</ref> He won a scholarship of four years from the County Council.{{Citation needed|date=August 2021}} He served in the Army in 1914 to 1918.{{Citation needed|date=August 2021}}
He made his debut at a Promenade concert under Thomas Beecham in 1919, playing the Rachmaninoff second concerto. Over the next four years he gave a series of orchestral concerts in the Queen's Hall, London, playing concerti by Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, Grieg, Tchaikovsky, Arensky, Liszt and Mackenzie. He also played the piano part in Scriabin's ''Prometheus'' several times.{{Citation needed|date=August 2021}}
In around 1922 Tyrer made some gramophone records with Adrian Boult and the British Symphony Orchestra for the Velvet Face (V-F) label, a department of Edison Bell Records; the recordings included Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1 in E flat and Franck's Symphonic Variations.{{Citation needed|date=August 2021}}
He toured Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa as a performer, conductor and musical examiner.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Thomas|first=Allan|url=http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-RenCrea-t1-body-d3-d11.html|title=Creating a National Spirit: celebrating New Zealand's Centennial|publisher=Victoria University Press|year=2004|location=Wellington|chapter=Centennial Music|via=NZETC}}</ref> He visited New Zealand during the 1930s, often as a music examiner.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite book|last=Thomson|first=John Mansfield|title=The Oxford history of New Zealand music|date=1991|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=0-19-558176-8|location=Auckland, N.Z.|pages=143|oclc=26724223}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=2 February 1934|title=Personal Notes|page=2|work=Inangahua Times|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/IT19340202.2.10|access-date=27 August 2021}}</ref>
He performed as a soloist with and conducted the Wellington Symphony Orchestra.<ref name=":0" /> In 1940 he became conductor of the New Zealand Centennial Music Festival Orchestra which played concerts in several cities between May and June.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web|last=Walls|first=Peter|date=2014|title=The first professional orchestras|url=https://teara.govt.nz/en/orchestras/page-2|url-status=live|access-date=2021-08-26|website=teara.govt.nz|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150504064506/http://www.teara.govt.nz:80/en/orchestras/page-2 |archive-date=4 May 2015 }}</ref> The orchestra played his composition ''Dr Faustus'' (1940)'','' a symphonic setting for chorus and orchestra based on Marlowe's poem.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> He was the founding conductor of the New Zealand National Orchestra, now the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, from 1946 to 1950.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web|last=Walls|first=Peter|date=2014|title=The National Orchestra|url=https://teara.govt.nz/en/orchestras/page-3|url-status=live|access-date=2021-08-26|website=teara.govt.nz|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150504064351/http://www.teara.govt.nz:80/en/orchestras/page-3 |archive-date=4 May 2015 }}</ref>
His composing style was English and of the first half of the 20th century.<ref name=":0" /> He wrote symphonic works, a piano concerto, piano pieces and songs.<ref name=":0" />
== See also == * British Symphony Orchestra discography – for details of recordings of Anderson Tyrer
== References == {{Reflist}}
== Sources == * Arthur Eaglefield Hull, ''A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians'' (Dent, London 1924). * Joy Tonks, ''The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, The First Forty Years'' (Reed Methuen, Auckland, 1986)
== External links == * [https://www.rnz.co.nz/concert/programmes/upbeat/audio/2546979/peter-mechen Interview with Peter Mechen on RNZ, 20 February 2013] – discusses Anderson Tyrer's appointment as conductor of the National Orchestra {{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tyrer, Anderson}} Category:1891 births Category:1962 deaths Category:People from Accrington Category:English classical pianists Category:British male classical pianists Category:Conductors of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra Category:English emigrants to New Zealand Category:20th-century classical pianists Category:20th-century English musicians Category:20th-century British male musicians Category:20th-century male pianists
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