Oliver Kentish

{{Short description|British musician}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

Oliver John Kentish (born 1954) is a British-born cellist, tutor, and composer, who has lived in Reykjavík, Iceland, since 1977, and was granted Icelandic nationality in 1989.{{cite web |url=http://www.cadenza.org/musicians/pages.cgi?id=1047 |title=Cadenza Musicians Directory |access-date=14 April 2025}} Kentish composes orchestral, choral, vocal, and chamber music.{{cite book |title=New Music of the Nordic Countries |last=White |first=John David |author2=Christensen, Jean |publisher=Pendragon Press |year=2002 |page=361 |quote=Oliver Kentish is at his best composing to texts, primarily for solo voices |isbn=978-1-57647-019-0}} He was born in London.

In addition to composition, Kentish has been the Artistic Director of the Iceland Amateur Symphony Orchestra (Sinfóníuhljómsveit áhugamanna) since 2005.{{cite web |url=http://www.ahugasinfonia.is/index.php?id=8 |title=About the Iceland Amateur Symphony Orchestra |accessdate=2008-12-02}}

Kentish was commissioned by the British Government in 1993 to write the work Mitt Folk which was performed by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and is dedicated to Vigdís Finnbogadóttir. The work commemorates the 50th anniversary of Iceland as a republic and was a gift from Britain to Iceland.

Much of Kentish's current work (2008) is for the countertenor Sverrir Guðjónsson.

His work Prelude and Fugue for 10 violas was premiered in the United Kingdom at the Purcell Room in London on 30 November 2008.{{cite web |url=http://www.jmi.org.uk/israelimusic/reviews/britishisraelimusicaldialogues.html |title=Israeli Music|last=Miller|first=Malcolm|date=30 November 2008|publisher=Jewish Music Institute|accessdate=24 January 2010 |quote=Other premieres included Prelude and Fugue for Ten Violas, by Oliver Kentish, a British cellist based in Iceland, with solos for each viola is based on the B-A-C-H motif, performed vividly by the Viola Ensemble of Trinity College of Music.}}