A composer of truly international stature, Mark-Anthony Turnage is among the most relevant communicators and creators of today. His orchestral and operatic music is often forthright and confrontational, unafraid to mirror the realities of modern life, yet its energy is exhilarating. With his flair for vivid titles, and his complete absorption of jazz elements into a contemporary classical style, Turnage produces work with a strong appeal to an enquiring, often young audience. At the same time his music is capable of expressing deep tenderness, especially emotions associated with loss.

Born in Britain in 1960, Turnage studied with Oliver Knussen and John Lambert, and later with Gunther Schuller. With the encouragement of Hans Werner Henze, he wrote his first opera for the Munich Biennale festival, Greek, which received a triumphant premiere in 1988. The many ensuing productions worldwide established Turnage’s international reputation. The important works that followed, Three Screaming Popes, Kai, Momentum and Drowned Out, stemmed from a four-year period as Composer in Association with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle, from 1989 to 1993.

Three years later Blood on the Floor was commissioned by Ensemble Modern. Written for John Scofield, Peter Erskine and Martin Robertson, it demonstrates Turnage’s ability to draw inspiration from the unique sounds of particular performers, often working in close collaboration.

Turnage’s major work in the late Nineties was his second full-length opera, The Silver Tassie, premiered in February 2000 to exceptional acclaim at English National Opera, where he was Composer in Association. It won both the South Bank Show and Olivier Awards for Opera in 2001.
The new century also brought Turnage’s appointment in 2000 as the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s first Associate Composer culminating in a major Turnage weekend at the Barbican in January 2003.

In the autumn of 2002, Sir Simon Rattle conducted Blood on the Floor at one of his first concerts as Chief Conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, attracting a largely new, younger audience to the Berlin Philharmonie and generating the Berlin Philharmonic’s first major education project. Rattle and the BPO have commissioned Ceres, an ‘orchestral asteroid’ which received its premiere performance in March this year. Other significant works from the new century include Bass Inventions, premiered by the bass player Dave Holland in Amsterdam in May 2001, and Scorched, co-written with John Scofield for jazz trio and orchestra, premiered in September 2002 with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and Big Band, conducted by Hugh Wolff.

The trumpet concerto From the Wreckage was written for soloist Håkan Hardenberger, who brought it to the 2005 Proms after its Helsinki premiere. Of the London performance, The Times critic wrote: ‘this was outstanding: a kind of rebirth piece in which the music begins hellishly but gradually picks up a bluesy swing as the soloist rhapsodically spirals higher and higher. I was mesmerised.’

Working during the 2004/05 season with the London Philharmonic led to Mark-Anthony Turnage's appointment as Composer in Residence with the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 2005. Scherzoid (recently released on the LPO’s own CD label) was commissioned by the Orchestra with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Other works reflecting Turnage’s high standing in America include the viola concerto On Opened Ground, which was premiered in 2002 by Yuri Bashmet and the Cleveland Orchestra.

Turnage has recently been appointed Mead Composer in Residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, 2006-2008. Much of Turnage’s music is recorded on Decca, Chandos, EMI and Black Box. Scorched, on Deutsche Grammophon, was nominated for a Grammy, while Etudes and Elegies was recently released on the Warner label. Turnage is Research Fellow in Composition at the Royal College of Music, and currently published by Boosey & Hawkes. Works written before 2003 are published by Schott.

Biography courtesy of Cathy Nelson Artists and Projects

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