Alex Woolf

Alex Woolf

Alex WoolfDescribed as ‘a major presence’ (Gramophone), and ‘one of the UK’s freshest new composing voices’ (PRS For Music), Alex Woolf, born in 1995, has already written music for many leading artists and ensembles, including Colin Currie, Sir James Galway, the Tallis Scholars, the Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge, and the London Symphony Orchestra, and has received commissions from Aldeburgh Music, The Arts Society, BBC Radio 3, Classic FM, the Lutheran Church of America, and the Royal Philharmonic Society.

Notable recent works include Requiem, for Nicky Spence (tenor), Laura van der Heijden (cello), and the Vox Luna Chamber Choir; NHS Symphony, a collaboration with BBC Radio 3 and the Bach Choir, which was nominated for a 2018 ARIA award; Direct Message, for trumpeter Matilda Lloyd and pianist John Reid, released on Orchid Classics; Dark Sayings, for the combined choirs of Norwich, Peterborough and Ely Cathedrals; and Golden Rhapsody, recorded by Sir James Galway and broadcast on Classic FM.

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Alex’s choral and vocal output has received particular acclaim. The Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge, has recorded O Vos Omnes (2015), for 2019 release on the Signum label. In 2017, his Nowell! won the inaugural Sir David Willcocks Carol Competition, adjudicated by John Rutter and David Hill, and his anthem Come and See was performed at the Cathedral of St John the Divine, New York, to mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. Three Tempestuous Tunes (2012) on texts from Shakespeare’s The Tempest, written for Nicky Spence and Malcolm Martineau, and recorded by them on the Resonus Classics label, was lauded by International Record Review as ‘wholly affecting’.

Alex’s instrumental catalogue includes large-scale works for the Aldeburgh World Orchestra, the Arensky Chamber Orchestra, and the London Symphony Orchestra. Chamber scores include, for Colin Currie, a percussion quartet Cantata (2018), The Year’s Midnight (2018) for soprano, clarinet, harp and double bass, Aria (2017) for horn and piano, Genie (2014) for members of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and Mermish (2012) for the Aurora Orchestra. His forthcoming commissions include works for the 2019 Ludlow English Song Weekend, the Lipatti Piano Quartet, the Rodolfus Choir, the London Mozart Players, and the Philharmonia Orchestra.

Alex graduated with triple First Class Honours in Music from St John’s College, Cambridge University, subsequently completing his Master’s degree at the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied with David Sawer, Huw Watkins and Oliver Knussen. Since 2012, when he was a BBC Young Composer of the Year, he has been the recipient of an impressive range of distinguished awards. In 2017 he was a member of the LSO’s Panufnik Composers Scheme, and was a Classic FM 25th-Birthday Composer. He is currently the recipient of a Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize. www.alex-woolf.com

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