Tony Britten

Tony Britten is a composer, writer and film-maker. A founder member of the acclaimed Trinity Boys Choir, he took many operatic roles as a treble, notably as Yniold in Pelléas et Mélisande conducted by Pierre Boulez at the Royal Opera House. After his voice broke, he concentrated on composing, and as a sixteen-year-old he was awarded an SPNM bursary to study electronic music with George Newson at Goldsmiths’ College, where he learned how easily a prototype VCS3 synthesizer could catch fire! 

In the 1970s the academic requirements to study composition at the Royal College of Music seemed onerous to him, so he took singing, piano and conducting as subjects instead, but continued writing music nonetheless, a preoccupation that continues to this day. Over a career spanning nearly fifty years he has worked in most genres of music – from orchestrating and conducting the seminal 1982 production of Guys and Dolls at the National Theatre, and running the ‘alternative’ opera company Music Theatre London, to composing the UEFA Champions League anthem, which has become the most successful worldwide sports theme of all time.

From childhood, however, choral music has been the foundation of Tony Britten’s musical development, and he is now enjoying a return to his roots with an increasing output of new works for vocal ensembles of all kinds.