Tomlinson, Ernest

Music in Print

Born in Lancashire, Tomlinson has long been one of the leading figures in the field of light music, both as composer and conductor (he had his own orchestra, which broadcast regularly, in the 1950s).. He broke into broadcasting as an arranger of traditional melodies, but his own compositions soon began to feature, of which the Little Serenade became the most popular. He has directed choirs for many years, been a composer-director of the Performing Right Society since 1965, won two Ivor Novello Awards (one for his ballet Aladdin, the other for services to light music) and founded The Library of Light Orchestral Music in 1984, a collection housing some 10,000 pieces, including many that would otherwise have been lost.