- Michael Heming
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Michael Heming (14th January 1920-1942) was a British composer. He was the son of Percy Alfred Heming, a well-known baritone, and Joyce Savage.
Heming studied conducting at the Royal Academy of Music, and was slated to become a student-assistant of John Barbirolli. While serving as a lieutenant in the King's Royal Rifle Corps, Heming was killed in action at the battle of El Alamein. Upon the return home of his personal effects, his mother discovered musical sketches Heming had written during and after his voyage to Africa. Percy Heming showed the sketches to Barbirolli, who engaged the composer and conductor Anthony Vincent Collins to edit the sketches into a work called Threnody for a Soldier Killed in Action. The work was premiered at City Hall, Sheffield, by the Hallé Orchestra conducted by Barbirolli, on 14th January 1944, which would have been Heming's 24th birthday. It received many further performances over the next few years, although it has been largely forgotten since.
Sources
- http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=infilms&id=I5085
- http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,803066,00.html
- http://www.concertprogrammes.org.uk/html/search/verb/GetRecord/2968
- Ramey, Phillip. Irving Fine: An American Composer in His Time. ISBN 978-1-57647-116-6
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