Biography
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Born
10 June 1960 (age 63)
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Born In
Corringham, Essex, England, United Kingdom
Mark-Anthony Turnage (born June 10, 1960 in Corringham, Essex) is an English composer of contemporary classical music. He has also been strongly influenced by jazz, and by Miles Davis in particular.
Turnage's music has a characteristic personal style, with strong rhythmic thrust, involved jazz harmonies, colourful orchestration with prominent use of percussion, and hints of various orchestrational sounds from Duke Ellington to 1970s TV detective series theme tunes. He enjoys the reputation of being one of the few modern classical composers who can write 'proper modern jazz'.
He is the author of numerous orchestral and chamber works, and of two widely-performed operas. Greek, first performed in 1988, is based on Steven Berkoff's adaptation of Oedipus the King. The Silver Tassie, first performed in 2000, is based on the play by Sean O'Casey. Other works include Three Screaming Popes (after the paintings by Francis Bacon) and Your Rockaby, a concerto for saxophone and orchestra.
In 1990, the post of Radcliffe Composer in Association with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra was created, and Turnage appointed. In 2006, Turnage was named a co-composer-in-residence of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a position which he will hold alongside Argentinian composer Osvaldo Golijov.
In Autumn 2005, he was appointed as the Royal College of Music's Research Fellow in Composition. In September 2006, he married Gabriella Swallow, whom BBC Radio 3 has described as a 'personable and articulate cellist'.
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