Philip Grange

Philip Grange’s principal composition teacher was Peter Maxwell Davies, with whom he studied between 1975 and 1981 both privately and at the Dartington Summer School of Music. It was also Maxwell Davies who commissioned some of Grange’s earliest pieces, such as Cimmerian Nocturne (1979), which he conducted at the St Magnus Festival and BBC Proms, and Variations (1986) which was featured at the International Rostrum of Composers in Paris in 1988.  In the 1990s Grange completed two important BBC commissions, Focus and Fade (1991/2) for orchestra and Lowry Dreamscape (1992) for brass band. The decade ended with the composition of a Clarinet Concerto Shēng Shēng Bù Shí    (1997/99) for the RNCM Wind Band and Grange’s former clarinet teacher Alan Hacker. Since 2000 his compositions have included two BBC commissions premiered by the BBC Philharmonic, Eclipsing (2004) for orchestra and a Violin Concerto (2019) for soloist Carolin Widmann, three string quartets (including the large-scale Ghosts of Great Violence (2012/13) for the Quatuor Danel) and major chamber pieces such as Shifting Thresholds (2016). 

Grange’s compositions have been performed throughout the world, most recently in Festivals in Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Macau, Belgium, México, Switzerland, Russia and the U.S. In the U.K. his work has been performed at most major festivals, including the BBC Proms and Huddersfield, Aldeburgh and Cheltenham festivals.  A significant number of Grange’s works have been recorded and released on CD and two of his single-composer CDs with the ensemble Gemini have been awarded Critic’s Choice in Gramophone magazine. His large-scale wind ensemble piece Cloud Atlas (2009) was awarded a BASCA prize in 2010 and his compositions are published by Peters Edition. 

Biography

Philip Grange’s principal composition teacher was Peter Maxwell Davies, with whom he studied between 1975 and 1981 both privately and at the Dartington Summer School of Music. It was also Maxwell Davies who commissioned some of Grange’s earliest pieces, such as Cimmerian Nocturne (1979), which he conducted at the St Magnus Festival and BBC Proms, and Variations (1986) which was featured at the International Rostrum of Composers in Paris in 1988.  In the 1990s Grange completed two important BBC commissions, Focus and Fade (1991/2) for orchestra and Lowry Dreamscape (1992) for brass band. The decade ended with the composition of a Clarinet Concerto Shēng Shēng Bù Shí    (1997/99) for the RNCM Wind Band and Grange’s former clarinet teacher Alan Hacker. Since 2000 his compositions have included two BBC commissions premiered by the BBC Philharmonic, Eclipsing (2004) for orchestra and a Violin Concerto (2019) for soloist Carolin Widmann, three string quartets (including the large-scale Ghosts of Great Violence (2012/13) for the Quatuor Danel) and major chamber pieces such as Shifting Thresholds (2016). 

Grange’s compositions have been performed throughout the world, most recently in Festivals in Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Macau, Belgium, México, Switzerland, Russia and the U.S. In the U.K. his work has been performed at most major festivals, including the BBC Proms and Huddersfield, Aldeburgh and Cheltenham festivals.  A significant number of Grange’s works have been recorded and released on CD and two of his single-composer CDs with the ensemble Gemini have been awarded Critic’s Choice in Gramophone magazine. His large-scale wind ensemble piece Cloud Atlas (2009) was awarded a BASCA prize in 2010 and his compositions are published by Peters Edition. 

Compilations with this composer

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