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Gareth Moorcraft (b.1990) is a British composer based in London and South Wales, UK.

His recent music often engages with ‘creative transcription’, recycling and distorting historical materials and musical tropes and presenting them in unusual new contexts. In 2023, he has also created a series of new works exploring the combination of synthesisers with acoustic instruments, in collaboration with pianist Joseph Havlat.

Gareth’s music has been performed and broadcast internationally by leading ensembles including the Philharmonia Orchestra, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and soloists and chamber ensembles including Tabea Debus, Tom Poster, Endymion, Chroma, and the Solem Quartet.

Gareth was awarded an Ivor Novello Award in the solo/duo category of The Ivors Composer Awards 2020. He is also the recipient of the prestigious RPS Composition Prize (2016), the Ty Cerdd Composition Prize (2012), and the inaugural BASCA British Composer Awards Student Prize (2012). Recordings of Gareth’s work have been released by NMC Recordings and Delphian Records.

Gareth is a composition professor and lecturer at the Royal Academy of Music, London. In 2019, he established the RAM’s Young Composer Club, which provides workshop opportunities for young composers studying in London state schools. He is passionate about music education and has run music workshops with numerous music organisations and festivals in the UK.

Full Biography

Projects:

Reflections (after Gibbons) — Reflections (after Orlando Gibbons)

News:

Gareth has composed two new works for pianist Joseph Havlat. The first, Unrealities, is a suite of solo pieces for piano and synthesiser. The second, Two Minds, pairs the same piano/synth combination with a small ensemble of flute, clarinet, violin and cello. The two works will be premiered in spring 2024 in association with the Riot Ensemble.
Taking Root, a series of graphic scores, was premiered by recorder player Tabea Debus at the Beaumaris Festival in June 2023. It will receive numerous upcoming performances as part of Tabea’s new concert series, ‘The Principles of Nature’.

Gareth has composed a new work for cellist Ben Michaels. The work will be premiered and recorded early in 2024.

Two of Gareth’s solo pieces are featured in the Royal Academy of Music’s Bicentenary Project - 200 Pieces. Vida for solo piano was recorded by George Xiaoyuan Fu and Ways things go was recorded by James Gilbert.

Gareth presented an ambitious composition project ‘Musical Trails’ to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the Purcell School for Young Musicians. Throughout the day, all students at the school performed short 60-note compositions in specially curated ‘walking concerts’ exploring unusual spaces in the buildings. Gareth has also worked on recent projects with the Aldeburgh Young Musicians and continues to develop new opportunities for young composers at London state schools, through various schemes at the Royal Academy of Music.