Jonathan Pitkin

Last updated

Jonathan Pitkin (born 1978) is a contemporary classical composer.

He was born in Dublin but brought up in Edinburgh. He studied at Christ Church, Oxford and at the Royal Academy of Music under Christopher Brown, where he was the recipient of several prizes and awards. His music has been performed and commissioned internationally as well as at major venues across the UK, including the Royal Festival Hall and the Huddersfield and Spitalfields Festivals. Performers have included the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Singers, members of the Philharmonia Orchestra, and conductors Garry Walker, Nicholas Cleobury, Stephen Layton and Martyn Brabbins. [1]

In 1998 he attended Karlheinz Stockhausen's inaugural composition course in Kürten, Germany, and in 2000 spent three months at the Paris Conservatoire, where he studied with Guy Reibel as well as following courses in orchestration and electro-acoustic composition. [1] He has also participated in classes and seminars with composers including Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Poul Ruders and Michael Finnissy.

In 2002 Pitkin worked as an assistant composer on the RPS Award-winning Sound Inventors initiative, and in 2003 he wrote for St Albans High School as part of the spnm/Making Music scheme Adopt a Composer, in connection with which he appeared on BBC Radio 3’s Music Matters. He now teaches composition and musicianship at the Royal College of Music Junior Department. [1]

In 2001 he was awarded the Temple Church Composition Prize for his anthem Hark! a herald voice is calling and was shortlisted by the Society for the Promotion of New Music. Three of his most recent works were broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in 2004, including the orchestral piece Borrowed Time. [1] Two of his choral pieces were published by Oxford University Press in the New Horizons series. [2]

Pitkin is currently working towards a DMus in composition at the Royal College of Music, with support from the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harrison Birtwistle</span> English composer (1934–2022)

Sir Harrison Birtwistle was an English composer of contemporary classical music best known for his operas, often based on mythological subjects. Among his many compositions, his better known works include The Triumph of Time (1972) and the operas The Mask of Orpheus (1986), Gawain (1991), and The Minotaur (2008). The last of these was ranked by music critics at The Guardian in 2019 as the third-best piece of the 21st century. Even his compositions that were not written for the stage often showed a theatrical approach. A performance of his saxophone concerto Panic during the BBC's Last Night of the Proms caused "national notoriety". He received many international awards and honorary degrees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malcolm Arnold</span> English composer (1921–2006)

Sir Malcolm Henry Arnold was an English composer. His works feature music in many genres, including a cycle of nine symphonies, numerous concertos, concert works, chamber music, choral music and music for brass band and wind band. His style is tonal and rejoices in lively rhythms, brilliant orchestration, and an unabashed tunefulness. He wrote extensively for the theatre, with five ballets specially commissioned by the Royal Ballet, as well as two operas and a musical. He also produced scores for more than a hundred films, among these The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), for which he won an Oscar.

Sir Lennox Randal Francis Berkeley CBE was an English composer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Berkeley</span> British composer and broadcaster on music

Michael Fitzhardinge Berkeley, Baron Berkeley of Knighton, is an English composer, broadcaster on music and member of the House of Lords.

Colin Matthews, OBE is an English composer of contemporary classical music. Noted for his large-scale orchestral compositions, Matthews is also a prolific arranger of other composer's music, including works by Berlioz, Britten, Dowland, Mahler, Purcell and Schubert. Other arrangements include orchestrations of all Debussy's 24 Préludes, both books of Debussy's Images, and two movements—Oiseaux tristes and La vallée des cloches—from Ravel's Miroirs. Having received a doctorate from University of Sussex on the works of Mahler, from 1964–1975 Matthews worked with his brother David Matthews and musicologist Deryck Cooke on completing a performance version of Mahler's Tenth Symphony.

Robert Saxton is a British composer.

Philip Cashian is an English composer. He is the head of composition at the Royal Academy of Music.

John Roger Smalley was an Anglo-Australian composer, pianist and conductor. Professor Smalley was a senior honorary research fellow at the School of Music, University of Western Australia in Perth and honorary research associate at the University of Sydney.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Wilkinson</span> British conductor and composer (1919–2021)

Stephen Austin Wilkinson was a British choral conductor and composer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Wood (musician)</span>

James Wood is a British conductor, composer of contemporary classical music and former percussionist. Wood studied composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris from 1971 to 1972 before going on to study music at Cambridge University, where he was organ scholar of Sidney Sussex College from 1972 until 1975. After graduating from Cambridge he went on to study percussion and conducting at the Royal Academy of Music, London, from 1975 until 1976. After a further year studying percussion privately with Nicholas Cole, Wood embarked on a triple career as percussionist, composer and conductor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenneth Hesketh</span> British composer

Kenneth Hesketh is a British composer of contemporary classical music in numerous genres including dance, orchestral, chamber, vocal and solo. He has also composed music for wind and brass bands as well as seasonal music for choir.

Jonathan Cole is a British composer and Head of Composition at the Royal College of Music.

Mark Bowden is a Welsh composer of classical music.

Odaline de la Martinez is a Cuban-American composer and conductor, currently residing in the UK. She is the artistic director of Lontano, a London-based contemporary music ensemble which she co-founded in 1976 with New Zealander flautist Ingrid Culliford, and was the first woman to conduct at the BBC Promenade Concerts in 1984. As well as frequent appearances as a guest conductor with leading orchestras throughout Great Britain, including all the BBC orchestras, she has conducted several leading ensembles around the world, including the Ensemble 2e2m in Paris; the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra; the Australian Youth Orchestra; the OFUNAM and the Camerata of the Americas in Mexico; and the Vancouver Chamber Orchestra. She is also known as a broadcaster for BBC Radio and Television and has recorded extensively for several labels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dobrinka Tabakova</span> British/Bulgarian composer (born 1980)

Dobrinka Tabakova is a Bulgarian-British composer.

Christopher Mayo is a Canadian composer of contemporary classical music.

Charlotte Bray is a British composer. She was championed by the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, London Sinfonietta and Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, BBC Symphony Orchestra. Her music has been performed by many notable conductors such as: Sir Mark Elder, Oliver Knussen, Daniel Harding, and Jac van Steen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patric Standford</span>

Patric Standford was an English composer, supporter of composers' rights, educationalist and author.

Christopher Painter is a composer who was born at Port Talbot, South Wales in 1962 and studied music at University College, Cardiff. His composition studies were initially with Timothy Taylor and Richard Elfyn Jones and in 1984 he began to study with Alun Hoddinott.

Grace-Evangeline Mason is a British composer of contemporary classical music.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Jonathan Pitkin". RCM. Retrieved 23 December 2012.
  2. "Raising expectations" (PDF). n-ISM. 2011. Retrieved 23 December 2012.