Gary Carpenter (b.1951) studied composition under John Lambert at the Royal College of Music, London. He has lived in Holland and Germany and has written four operas, five musicals and a radio music drama - The One Alone - with Dame Iris Murdoch as well as animated and live action film scores, several ballets mainly for Nederlands Dans Theater and a large amount of concert music.

He teaches composition at both the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester in and the Royal Academy of Music in London. He regularly guests as a professor on National Youth Orchestra courses and was musical director and/or arranger-orchestrator on many films including The Wicker Man (1973) and The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. In 2004, his Van Assendelft’s Vermeer for clavichord won the British Clavichord Society Composition Competition whilst his Azaleas for harp, violin and ‘cello won a Victor Salvi Award in Venice. These were shortlisted in adjacent years for British Composer Awards (2005/6). The BBC recently commissioned and broadcast his Concerto for Horn and Orchestra. His ‘Sonatinas’ for alto saxophone and chamber orchestra (an Ensemble 10:10 Anniversary Commission) receives its first performance with Christian Forshaw in March 2007. An NMC retrospective CD (also with Ensemble 10:10) is released in 2007 and his Songs Of Sadness And Piety for voices, saxophone, organ & percussion has been recorded for release on Christian Forshaw’s CD Renouncement.

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Discography