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Mark-Anthony Turnage

Mark-Anthony Turnage

Country of origin: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Birthday: June 10, 1960

About Mark-Anthony Turnage

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 (1986-88), 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 (1988-89), Kai (1989-90), Momentum (1990-91) and Drowned Out (1992-93), 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 (1993-96) 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 (1997-99), 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 Berlin Philarmonic have commissioned Ceres, an "orchestral asteroid" which received its premiere performance in March 2007. Other significant works from the new century include Bass Inventions (1999-2000), premiered by the bass player Dave Holland in Amsterdam in May 2001, and Scorched (1996-2001), 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.

Working during the 2004/05 season with the London Philharmonic led to Turnage's appointment as Composer in Residence with the London Philharmonic from 2006 to 2010. The residency was celebrated with Turnage's first violin concerto, Mambo, Blues and Tarnatella, written for Christian Teztlaff and the LPO with Vladimir Jurowski and premiered at the South Bank Centre in September 2009, with subsequent performances in Stockholm and Toronto from the co-commissioning partners.

Turnage was also appointed Mead Composer in Residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 2006 to 2010 during which time the CSO gave the US premiere of Scorched under Steven Sloane.

Much of Turnage’s music is recorded on Decca, Chandos and Black Box. Scorched, on Deutsche Grammophon, was nominated for a Grammy, while Etudes and Elegies (2000-02) is out on Warner. Turnage is Research Fellow in Composition at the Royal College of Music.

 

Worklist

Chronology

1960
Wird am 10. Juni in Corringham, Essex, geboren
1966
Erster Klavierunterricht
1969
Erste Kompositionsversuche
1974
Aufnahme ins Junior Department des Royal College of Music; studiert Komposition bei Oliver Knussen
1981
Für Night Dances erhält er den Guinness Prize for composition
1982

Erste Aufführungen von Night Dances für Orchester durch die London Sinfonietta
 

1983

Erhält das Mendelssohn-Stipendium mit der Möglichkeit an der Tanglewood Summer School teilzunehmen. Studium bei Gunther Schuller und inoffiziel bei Hans Werner Henze.

1985

On All Fours, ein Auftragswerk der London Sinfonietta.

1987
Release, komponiert für eine Fernsehdokumentation der BBC als Teil der Sound on Film Serie
1988
Uraufführung von Greek bei der Münchner Biennale; Nationale Erstaufführung im United Kingdom beim Edinburgh Festival
1989
Three Screaming Popes wird in Birmingham uraufgeführt
1990

Wird Composer-in-Association beim CBSO; Kai, für Cello und Ensemble, geschrieben für die Birmingham Contemporary Music Group

1991

Some Days wird bei den BBC Proms uraufgeführt

1992
Leaving, eine Komposition für den City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus
1993
Drowned Out markiert das Ende der Zusammenarbeit in Birmingham

Your Rockaby für Sopransaxophon und Orchester
1995
Wird Composer-in-Association an der English National Opera

Dispelling the Fears, Orchesterversion
1996
Erste vollständige Aufführung von Blood on the Floor
1997

Beim Aldeburgh Festival wird Twice through the Heart and The Country of the Blind uraufgeführt

1998
Silent Cities für Orchester wird in Tokyo uraufgeführt
1999

Your Rockaby wird in der BBC Fernsehdokumentation Six Pieces of Britain vorgestellt

2000-2003
Gastkomponist beim BBC Symphony Orchestra
2001

The Silver Tassie gewinnt den South Bank Show Award und den Olivier Award in der Kategorie Oper

2002

Simon Rattle führt Blood on the Floor bei seinen ersten Konzerten als Chefdirigent der Berliner Philharmoniker auf

2003

Großer Rückblick im Londoner Barbican Centre in Zusammenarbeit mit der BBC

2004
Composer in Residence beim Moritzburg Festival
2005

Scorched wird für 2 Grammys nominiert

2006
Dozent in Tanglewood
2006-2010

Composer in Residence, London Philharmonic Orchestra und Mead Composer in Residence beim Chicago Symphony Orchestra

2007
Composer in Residence beim Risør Festival in Norwegen
2010

Composer in Residence beim Cabrillo Music Festival, California

2011

Ehrendoktor der Universität London (Royal Holloway)

2015

ausgezeichnet mit Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire

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