Jonathan Little

Professional

• Composer/Lyricist: Composer
• Genre: Concert
• Email: jonathan.d.little@talk21.com
• Website: http://www.dilettantemusic.com/member/d100647

Biography

DR. JONATHAN LITTLE B.Mus.(Hons.), Th.A, Ph.D.

- FANFARE MAGAZINE CRITICS CHOICE 2008 (USA)
- MUSICIANS BENEVOLENT FUND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AWARD 2009 (UK)
- ASCAPLUS AWARDS FOR CONCERT MUSIC 2006/07/08/09 (USA)

The music of ASCAP award-winning British composer Jonathan Little is notable for its beauty, intensity, richness of material and elegance of craftsmanship. He has a growing number of contracts with both music and book publishing houses, as well as independent record companies. His existing catalogue of vocal and instrumental works is contracted for print publication to Australia’s leading independent classical music publisher, Wirripang. Many of his works are now also commercially available on CD, performed by major artists, and are increasingly being used for film synchronisation purposes.

In the period 2004-07, the US-headquartered French contemporary music label ERM (Editions de la Rue Margot) undertook to record a selection of his compositions within their 12-CD “Masterworks” series, performed by the Czech and Kiev Philharmonic Orchestras, with vocal soloists of the Sofia National Opera (Vols. 3, 5, 8, 10 & 11). Other important musical premières include Jonathan’s 21-part Kyrie given at the historic Tallis 500th Anniversary Concerts in 2005, and subsequently featured in Thierry Donard's 2007 film, "Nuit de la Glisse". Recordings have been supported by the Kenneth Leighton Trust (UK) and the Foundation for New Music (USA). Jonathan has won 4 ASCAPlus Awards for Concert Music and 5 Masterworks Recording Prizes (USA). In 2009 he was recipient of an inaugural Musicians Benevolent Fund Professional Development Award, specifically to assist in issuing further orchestral recordings.

In 2008, the first compilation album of his music was released on Dilute Recordings (UK) to universal critical praise, and airplay throughout the U.S. and Australia. Cambridge University Press’s Tempo magazine (January 2008) described it as a “ground-breaking tour de force … incandescent”, while, in America, Fanfare magazine (May-June 2008) admired its “music of tremendous power … [and] astonishing range of colors and moods”. By December, American critic and recording historian Lynn René Bayley had ranked the album second amongst her Top 5 worldwide releases for the year (Fanfare's "Want List 2008"), applauding "a major new, original and quite brilliant classical voice". During 2009-11, further important recordings will be released, and studies of some of his prize-winning compositions will be published in the major American reference series, Masterworks of the New Era: Music of the 20th and 21st Century (Norfolk, Virginia, USA: ERM Media).

Born in 1965, Jonathan trained as a chorister with the National Boys’ Choir of Australia, and later went on to study Composition and Performance at the University of Melbourne – winning the Lady Turner Exhibition for overall excellence. He is a former member of the Australian Youth Orchestra, and has performed with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and for new music concerts of the Australian Opera Company. Before moving to the UK in 1995, he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in music for his research into the development of "exotic" 19th- and 20th-century orchestration.

From 2001-2006, Jonathan was Principal of the Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford, England – Europe’s largest specialist academy for students of contemporary music, and the first music education establishment to win the Queen's Award for Enterprise (Innovation category). During his tenure at ACM, he helped build a world-class music institution, unprecedented in terms of its integrated music industry links, and he also helped to establish Italy's first contemporary music degree course in Bologna. In 2005, Jonathan was appointed founding Consultant Editor to A&C Black’s flagship volume of musical reference, the Musicians’ and Songwriters’ Yearbook (with Foreword by IFPI Chairman, John Kennedy), and he has contributed articles on the future of music to the Hudson Institute's American Outlook magazine, and the British Academy’s Heart & Soul: Revealing the Craft of Songwriting (published to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Ivor Novello Awards). He is currently working four book titles: a definitive guide, Theory and Practice of Songwriting, for Robert Hale, as well as two major academic studies on exoticism on 19th & 20th century orchestral music for Edwin Mellen Press, and On Musical Composition for Wirripang. Jonathan is listed in the Music Publishers' Association Register of Expert Musicologists.

Jonathan is currently Senior Lecturer in Music at the University of Chichester, and Visiting Lecturer in Media Music Composition at the University of Surrey. His next album, Polyhymnia, will be released in America in ERM's "Prestige" Series in late 2010.

Artists who have performed or recorded the works of Jonathan Little include: Czech Philharmonic Orchestra; Kiev Philharmonic Orchestra; Millennium Symphony orchestra; Soloists of the Sofia National Opera; Bath Camerata; Tallis Chamber Choir.

Jonathan Little's Performing Rights are assigned to ASCAP (for clearance see: www.ascap.com – “ACE Title Search” – “Search the Database” – Writers / Find “Jonathan Little”) (Vocal, choral, chamber and orchestral repertoire). 

LATEST CD (FANFARE RECOMMENDED RECORDING 2008):
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/B0018O3MMA/ref=dp_proddesc_0?ie=UTF8&n=5174&s=music

DISCOGRAPHY links:
http://www.classicsonline.com/composerbio/52177.htm
http://www.dilettantemusic.com/member/d100647
YOUTUBE link:
http://www.youtube.com/Musicalia65


PUBLISHERS

Publications by Wirripang
18/106 Corrimal Street
Wollongong
NSW 2500
Australia

Phone: +61 (0)2 4228 9388
Email: keats@wirripang.com.au
Website: