I was born in 1955 in Worksop, in North Nottinghamshire, England, to Polish parents, who had come to Britain after the Second World War. My father, Antoni Zajaczkowski, was a miner and landlord. I am the third of their four sons. I was raised in Mansfield, which was once within an important coal-mining region, and had its own brewery until recent times. It is the second town in Nottinghamshire after Nottingham itself. My education began at St. Philip Neri\u2019s Roman Catholic Infant and Junior Schools, then continued, from 1967 to 1974, at Queen Elizabeth\u2019s Grammar School for Boys. Originally intending to prepare to study geology at university, I found that, during my time at Queen Elizabeth\u2019s, my interests moved over from the sciences to the humanities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The head of the English Department at Q.E.G.S. was a formidably learned teacher, Dr. Alan Wheater, who instilled in me a love of English literature that lasts to this day, and that, indeed, still informs my work as a musicologist. That is because I believe that, as composition on the one hand, and the work of poets, novelists and playwrights on the other are comparable in creative terms in many ways, a fruitful cross-referencing between them can often be made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From 1968 to 1973 I attended Saturday morning tuition at the North Nottinghamshire Junior Music School, Sparken Hill, Worksop, studying piano with Mr. Michael Alvey, \u2019cello with Mr. John Leening and musical theory and composition with Mr. Michael Neaum. I also sang in the school\u2019s choir and played \u2019cello in the orchestra, under the direction of Mr. Leslie Bresnen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I went on to do a bachelor\u2019s degree in music (graduating in1978) and a Ph.D (1985) at the University of Sheffield. My thesis tutor in respect of both these degrees was the Russian-music scholar Professor Edward Garden. A chapter from the thesis, \u2019The Symphonies of Tchaikovsky\u2019, that I submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the bachelor\u2019s degree, was eventually published, in revised form, as a journal article (\u2019Tchaikovsky\u2019s fourth Symphony\u2019 in The Music Review<\/em>, vol. 45 (1984)). My Ph.D thesis, \u2019Tchaikovsky\u2019s Musical Style\u2019, also revised, appeared as a book in 1987 (with the same title) brought out by the American publisher, U.M.I. Research Press, as vol. 19 of the series: \u2018Russian Music Studies\u2019, edited by Malcolm Hamrick Brown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Summary:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n pupil of St. Philip Neri\u2019s R.C. Infant and Junior School, Mansfield, Notts., England (1960-67); I was born in 1955 in Worksop, in North Nottinghamshire, England, to Polish parents, who had come to Britain after the Second World War. My father, Antoni Zajaczkowski, was a…<\/p>\n
pupil of Queen Elizabeth\u2019s Grammar School for Boys, Mansfield (1967-74);
pupil of North Nottinghamshire Junior Music School, Worksop (Saturday morning tuition; 1968-73);
student of The University of Sheffield, graduating B.Mus. 1978 and Ph.D 1985<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"