Alec Roth

Alec Roth

Born near Manchester, of German/Irish descent, Alec Roth studied music at the University of Durham, where he was awarded the Scott Prize; conducting with Diego Masson (Dartington) and Rafael Kubelik (Lucerne); and gamelan at the Academy of Indonesian Performing Arts (ASKI) in Surakarta, Central Java.  From 1986 to 1989 he was holder of the Collard Fellowship, and in 2000 received a major grant to further his composition work from the Gulbenkian Foundation.

Posts he has held include Founder Artistic Director of the Royal Festival Hall Gamelan Programme and South Bank Gamelan Players (1987-91); Music Director of the Baylis Programme, English National Opera (1988-93); Composer in Association, Opera North (1994-96); and Lecturer in Music, University of Edinburgh (2002-03).  He now works as a freelance composer.

His collaborations with the Indian writer Vikram Seth include the song cycles Chinese Gardens (Chester Festival commission 1998) and Romantic Residues (Bury St Edmunds Festival commission 2003) and Earth and Sky for children’s chorus (BBC commission for the Proms 2000 season).  Vikram Seth was also the librettist for Arion and the Dolphin, commissioned by English National Opera and premiered in the Royal Navy Dockyard, Plymouth in 1994.  Subsequent productions include Singapore (1996), Nottingham (1998) and Rotterdam (1999).

Other works include a version of Shakespeare's The Tempest with gamelan (Vancouver 1989); Gretel and Hansel (1988), an opera for young people, libretto by David Sulkin; The Big Wash Cycle (1994), songs to words by Jo Shapcott; All Summer in a Day (1996), a musical drama for children to perform to adults, based on the story by Ray Bradbury; three commissions for the Academy of St Martin in the Fields: Departure of the Queen of Sheba (1999) for oboe, cor anglais and string orchestra, Nocturne (2000) for viola and string orchestra and Concertino Piccolo (2006) for string orchestra with two groups of young violinists; a String Quartet: Klee Pictures (Bath International Music Festival commission, 2002); and a Guitar Quintet (2006) and several solo works including The Unicorn in the Garden (2003) for the Mexican guitarist Morgan Szymanski. 

Recent projects include pieces for the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Ensemble and Brinkburn Festival, and a cycle of 4 major works over 4 years in collaboration with Vikram Seth, co-commissioned by the Salisbury, Chelsea and Lichfield Festivals.  The first in the series, Songs in Time of War, a 40-minute cycle with violin, harp and guitar was written for the tenor Mark Padmore, premiered in 2006 and released on CD on the Signum Classics label in July 2008.  The second, a pair of interlocking works:  Shared Ground for unaccompanied 12-part double choir and Ponticelli for solo violin was premiered by Ex Cathedra under Jeffrey Skidmore and Philippe Honoré in 2007.  The third, The Traveller, a 50-minute oratorio on the theme of the Ages of Man for violin, tenor, chorus, children’s chorus and an orchestra of strings, percussion and harp (Britten Sinfonia), received its first performance in Salisbury Cathedral in May 2008.  The series was completed with Seven Elements for tenor and piano and Seven Elements Suite for violin and piano in 2009.  January 2010 saw the first performance of Earthrise for unaccompanied choir in 40 parts, commissioned to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Ex Cathedra.

For further information, please contact:
E-mail: alecroth@hotmail.com

Back to members-directory listing