Born in Carlisle, England, Ivor studied Cello, Double Bass and Composition at the Birmingham School of Music. After graduating in 1981 Ivor joined the National Centre for Orchestral Studies, London University, as principal Double Bass, where he also studied composition with Dr Alan Bush.
After leaving the National Centre for Orchestral Studies he joined the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra in Manchester. Ivor has been a member of this orchestra for the past 22 years. Throughout his career, Hodgson has written a great variety of music including music for string quartets, Orchestra and Brass band, and in 2002 he arranged music for the British pop idols, Will Young and Gareth Gates which was performed at the BBC Prom in Hyde Park, London. Ivor is currently working on his first opera “ The Plague of Eyam”
At the heart of Hodgson’s repetoire are six major concerto’s The Piano concerto, written for Peter Donahoe in 1992 was later recorded for BBC radio 3 by Kathryn Stott and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. The Contra-Bassoon Concerto was written for Peter Wesley and the Chester Philharmonic in 1993. 1996 saw the premier of an Accordion concerto performed by the Russian virtuoso Oleg Sharov and the Manchester Camerata.
“On a long walk back from Manchester” a Bassoon concerto was composed in 1998 and his critically acclaimed Trombone concerto, premiered in Chester Cathedral in 2000 and performed several times with Robert Holliday as soloist, was recorded by the BBC Philharmonic in January 2002.
The Trumpet concerto is the most recent of his concerto’s, and was premiered at the International Trumpet Guild in Dallas last year 2003, Patrick Addinall was soloist with the Dallas Wind Symphony.
