Gary Carpenter

Gary Carpenter studied composition at the Royal College of Music, London with John Lambert. He has lived in Holland and Germany and has written operas, musicals, ballets (mainly for NDT), a radio music-drama (The One Alone with Iris Murdoch) and much concert music. Musical director and/or arranger-orchestrator on many stage shows and films (including The Wicker Man [1972]), his Azaleas for harp trio received a 2006 British Composer Award in the chamber category. A portrait CD - Die Flimmerkiste is available on NMC. Recent works include The Listening Project Symphony (Radio 4, Prix Europa 2013 nominee), Fred and Ginger (LSO, Daniel Harding), SET (Iain Ballamy (tenor sax), BBCPO, HK Gruber] and Dadaville (BBCSO, Sakari Oramo) for The First Night of the 2015 Proms. His orchestral work Willie Stock was premiered at the Aldeburgh Festival 2016 with the BBCSO conducted by Oliver Knussen. Ghost Songs for junior choir and orchestra (RSNO/CBSO/RLPO/Basque National Orchestra joint commission) premieres in Scotland (2018) and Mondrian (Harpsichord Concerto) for Mahan Esfahani and Ensemble 10/10 in Liverpool (2019).

Gary is the RLPO’s Composer in Association, Professor of Composition at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester and a professor of composition at the Royal Academy of Music, London. A CD of his orchestral works (including Love’s Eternity) with the RLPO conducted by Clark Rundell and Andrew Manze with soloists Iain Ballamy and Kathryn Rudge is released on Nimbus in early 2019.

Theatre Fountain and Pantomime for 13 Winds has been recorded by the RNCM Wind Orchestra and will be released as an NMC stream in 2019.