Melanie Ruth Daiken

Melanie Ruth Daiken (27 July 1945 – 25 June 2016) was an English conductor, composer and music educator. She taught at the Royal Academy of Music and became Deputy Head of Composition in 1986. Her compositions have been performed on radio and she was commissioned to write an opera by the Edinburgh Festival.

Life She was born in London, the daughter of a Canadian mother and Leslie Daiken, a Russian-Jewish writer from Ireland. She began violin lessons at an early age, and studied piano with Vivian Langrish and composition with Hugh Wood at the Royal Academy of Music. After completing her studies, she took a teaching position with the Royal Academy of Music and became Deputy Head of Composition in 1986. Daiken also taught at Morley College and London University.

Works Eusebius, opera Playboy of the Western World, opera Mayakovsky and the Sun, opera