Mark Anthony Turnage

Composer | Guest Speaker

A composer of international stature, Mark-Anthony Turnage is indisputably among the most significant creative figures to have emerged in British music of the last three decades. His first opera, Greek, established Turnage’s reputation as an artist who dared to forge his own path between modernism and tradition by means of a unique blend of jazz and classical styles. Three Screaming Popes, Kai, Momentum and Drowned Out emerged during his time in Birmingham with Simon Rattle, followed by Blood on the Floor, his unique score written for the distinguished jazz musicians John Scofield and Peter Erskine, and Martin Robertson. His second full- length opera,The Silver Tassie won both the South Bank Show and the Olivier Awards for Opera in 2001; his third opera Anna Nicole played to sold –out houses at Covent Garden in 2011 and has received new productions in Germany and New York, as well as a revival at Covent Garden in Autumn 2014. Turnage has been resident composer with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra and London Philharmonic Orchestra and more recently began an association with the London Symphony Orchestra for whom he wrote a major new work, Speranza. His second work for the LSO, co-commissioned with Berlin Philharmonic and Boston Symphony Orchestra will be premiered in 2017. Other recent works include ballet scores for Sadlers Wells (Undance) and the Royal Ballet (Trespass, and Strapless) a piano concerto (Marc-Andre Hamelin) a drum- kit concerto (Peter Erskine) and a second trumpet concerto (Hakan Hardenberger). Much of Turnage’s music is recorded on Decca, Chandos, EMI, Black Box and the London Philharmonic Orchestra label, while Scorched, on Deutsche Grammophon, was nominated for a Grammy. Turnage is Research Fellow in Composition at the Royal College of Music, and is published by Boosey & Hawkes.