Graham Fitkin
 | Graham Fitkin is a UK composer who works with acoustic and electronic instruments, collaborates with dance, film and digital media alongside concert orchestral and chamber music. He has collaborated with many of today's foremost performers of new music including the Nederlands Blazersensemble, Will Gregory, Apollo Saxophone Quartet, Smith Quartet, Piano Circus, Ensemble Bash, Combustion Chamber, Elysian Quartet and the London Chamber Orchestra. He is part of Fitkin Wall, PRSF success story. |
Since a ‘Composer for Dance Award’ in 1990 led to a new work for David Massingham Dance, Graham has worked frequently with choreographers around the world with recent performances being given by Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company, Wayne McGregor's Random Dance, Pacific Northwest Ballet, New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Bi-Ma, Sidonie Rochon, Munich Ballet and National Ballet of Portugal. He won the International Grand Prix Music for Dance Video Award in 1994.
Between 1994 and 1996 Graham was resident composer with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra producing five new works. Since then many works have been commissioned and composed for orchestra, performances include those by the Halle, BBC Philharmonic, Tokyo Symphony, RSNO, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Bournemouth Symphony, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Nederlands Radio Orchestra etc. He has conducted orchestras in venues from the Lincoln Center to the Southbank Centre to Aula Magna.
Performing has always been an important aspect of Graham’s work. Kaplan (based on the fictitious character in Hitchcock’s North by Northwest) used video and live webcams on the musicians to focus on notions of mistaken identity and toured the UK, Japan and Holland in 2005. The more recent Still Warm for multiple electronically manipulated harps toured UK in 2007 with visuals by Marc Silver and Nick Corrigan, with funding from the PRS Foundation. Concerned with the juxtaposition of opposites, this placed early gaelic plucked instruments into new contexts with digitalia and live visuals. On both of these projects he collaborated with his partner Ruth as part of FitkinWall.
Recent works include the double concerto for two Pianos and Orchestra - Circuit, commissioned by the BBC and featuring soloists Kathryn Stott and Noriko Ogawa, Pawn for the Duke Quartet, Lens for the Concertgebouw in Holland (for Janine Jansen, Christian Poltera and Kathryn Stott) and Sinew for the Fibonacci Sequence. There have been recent collaborations with London Chamber Orchestra, Powerplant, visual artist John Keys and Royal Ballet choreographer Jonathan Watkins.
Graham’s work has been released on CD by Decca’s Argo label, Factory Classical, Sanctuary’s Black Box, EMI and Sony, and Circuit has just been recorded in Japan with Tokyo Symphony Orchestra for BIS records. In 2009 there are new commissions for the London Chamber Orchestra and BBC Concert Orchestra. In 2010 there is a new production for the Royal Ballet and also a concerto for midi-harp and orchestra for harpist Sioned Williams and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Here's what Graham has been listening to...
Battles: Mirrored (Warp)
I heard a bit of this album on the interweb and it caught me straight away. It's really exciting stuff. I find each track has a sense of propulsion and imagination mixed with a sort of brutal self piss-take. Which is quite a balance to achieve.
Wire: Object 47 (Pink Flag)
In the 80s I listened to quite a bit of post punk and Wire was a favourite at the time, so I was delighted when I heard they were releasing a new album last year. Then I was slightly worried that it wouldn't match up to my memory of things all those years back. But Object 47 has been a regular listen for the past few months and shows no sign of stopping. Drummer Robert Gotobed has relinquished that marvellous surname for his original Grey but the drumming is as astute, simple and clear as it always was.
Steve Reich: Early Works (Nonesuch)
I've been programming some events recently in London based on multiples of similar sounding instruments, and as part of the research I listened to the master of this sort of thing - Steve Reich. I particularly like his early works, which I find more rigorous and less soft centred, and so this album has been great to hear again. I've been particularly enjoying the early tape pieces Come Out and It's Gonna Rain.