Michael Kidd was born in Morland, Cumbria, in 1926.  After service in the Fleet Air Arm and Royal Marines during World War II, he joined BOAC and rose to become Station Manager for the Corporation all over the world.  In 1947 he was involved with the airlift of refugees to and from India and Pakistan.  On leaving BOAC Michael joined Eagle Airways as Traffic Superintendant and in 1959 formed his own company to train professional pilots.  By 1968 he had contracts to train BOAC and BEA pilots and several foreign airlines, as well as training hundreds of pilots through the flying scholarship scheme for the Fleet Air Arm, the RAF and the Royal Army Air Corps.

Running alongside his lifelong involvement with aviation is a deep love of music.  Wherever he found himself in the forces Michael played the organ for the service church and, after the war, wherever he played the organ he formed a choir.  Starting at the age of eleven, he was a church organist for sixty years so, when ill health forced him to relinquish his beloved aviation, he turned his hobby of music into a profession.

His new career received an unexpected boost when, having ended a recital with one of his own compositions, he was approached by an executive from the leading music publishers, Boosey and Hawkes, with an offer to publish the piece.  After this initial success, Boosey and Hawkes went on to commission more music from Michael and he wrote film scores and music for radio and television.  Amongst many commissions was one from the Royal Navy.  He also wrote a March ‘Away Lifeboat’ to mark the150th anniversary of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.  The late Queen Mother heard ‘Away Lifeboat’ when it was played in St. Paul’s Cathedral and asked for details of the composer.

Throughout the 1970’s and 1980’s Michael’s compositions were regularly performed and broadcast on both radio and television and several LP recordings were issued.  Eventually Michael’s health prevented his playing in public and he felt that his career as a musician had reached its conclusion, but in the last ten years thanks to the support and deep friendship of David Parsons, Michael has been encouraged to re-visit and prepare a number of his pieces for publication.


David has carefully edited and prepared the scores and, in addition, made a splendid CD recording of all the pieces in both of the ‘Portrait’ collections as well as the superb ‘Fanfare for Freedom’ which was composed to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the successful outcome of the Falklands Campaign and which was published in May 2007.

Michael now lives with his wife Pat in the Somerset village of Ashcott, on the Polden Hills near Street. You can find out more about this fascinating composer at: http://www.michaelkidd.org/