Anthony Burgess

Music was always a great love for Anthony Burgess. His desire to be a composer was first thwarted by his father's refusal to pay for piano lessons and then by Manchester University's rejection of his application to read music because he had failed physics (thought to be essential to understand acoustics). Even with these disadvantages, Burgess became a successful composer and cited the premiere of his third symphony by the University of Iowa's orchestra, which had also commissioned it, as one of the truly great artistic moments of his career.

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