Gary Carpenter

He has lived in Holland and Germany and has written operas, musicals (including The Streets Of London and Goodnight Mister Tom – The Musical), the radio music-drama The One Alone with Iris Murdoch, ballets (mostly for Nederlands Dans Theater) and a large amount of concert music.

He has been a combination of musical director and arranger-orchestrator on many stage shows and films, including The Wicker Man, and his Azaleas for harp trio received a 2006 British Composer Award in the chamber category.

Gary's CDs include SET (orchestral works) and Die Flimmerkiste (chamber works). Recent works include Fred and Ginger (London LSO, Daniel Harding), SET (Iain Ballamy, BBC PO, HK Gruber) and Dadaville (BBC SO, Sakari Oramo) for The First Night of the Proms in 2015.

His orchestral work Willie Stock was premiered at the Aldeburgh Festival in 2016 with the BBCSO and conducted by Oliver Knussen. Ghost Songs for junior choir and orchestra (RSNO/CBSO/RLPO/Basque National Orchestra joint commission) was premiered in Scotland in November 2018. His work Mondrian (Harpsichord Concerto) for Mahan Esfahani and Ensemble 10/10 premiered in Liverpool in March 2019.

Gary was the RLPO’s Composer in Association (2018-19) and holds a professorship at the Royal Northern College of Music. Until 2021, he was a Director of the Ivors Academy. He is published by Chester Music Ltd.

Image Credit: Kris Worsley