COMPOSER and former Head of Music at the Royal Shakespeare Company Guy Woolfenden OBE has died, age 78.

Mr Woolfenden, a resident of Sibford Ferris in North Oxfordshire for more than 40 years, composed hundreds of scores during his time at the Royal Shakespeare Company.

He wrote music for film, radio, television and for the concert hall, and composed three musicals and a children's opera.

His musical version of The Comedy of Errors, written with Trevor Nunn for the RSC, won the lvor Novello and Society of West End Theatre Awards for the best British musical.

Other notable productions for which he wrote the music include Hamlet with Kenneth Branagh, directed by Adrian Noble, and Bill Alexander's productions of Richard III and The Merchant of Venice, with Anthony Sher.

Guy Woolfenden was born in 1937 in Ipswich to parents who were both musicians. He began piano and singing lessons aged seven.

As a young boy he joined Westminster Abbey Choir School and then became senior chorister during the 1951 Festival of Britain, at just age 14.

He also sang at the wedding of HRH Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh in 1947. 

From 1952 to 1956 he attended Whitgift School in Croydon.

In 1955 he was a member of the Dorian Singers under Matyas Seiber and also a horn player at the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.

From 1956 to 1959 he was a choral scholar at Christ's College, Cambridge and gained a BA (Hons) while there.

In 1957 he was first horn in the International Youth Orchestras in Vienna and in 1958 he was a member of the British and International Youth Orchestras at Brussels World Fair.

In 1959 he was a member of British Students' Orchestra in Vienna and also principal conductor of Cambridge University Opera Group.

Also in 1959 he received a Mitchell Scholarship to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, continuing to study horn.

During the 1960s he played in a variety of different orchestras and performances, and in 1961 joined Royal Shakespeare's Company as Assistant Music Director.

He then moved to become head of music and resident composer, a role he kept for nearly 40 years.

For 10 years from 1968 he was principal conductor for Morley College Symphony Orchestra, London.

He was then principal conductor for Liverpool Mozart Orchestra from 1970 to 1992.

He was also principal conductor for Warwickshire Symphony Orchestra from 1972 to 2012.

Mr Woolfenden spent some time as music director at the University College, London from 1977 to 1979 and was chairman of the Denne Gilkes memorial funds, which assists young students of music and drama.

During the 1990s he was most notably president of both Wolverhampton Music Society and Wolverhampton Shakespeare Society, conductor of Birmingham Conservatoire Wind Orchestra, patron of Birmingham Symphonic Winds and honorary member of London College of Music.

He was also president of the Shakespeare Club in Stratford-upon-Avon and chairman of the British Association of Symphonic Bands and Wind Ensembles.

In 2007 he was awarded an OBE for his services to music in the New Year Honours List and from 2010 to 2013 was chairman of National Concert Band Festival.

Mr Woolfenden died on April 15. He is survived by wife Jane and three sons Richard, Stephen and James.