Pa and Me
This is a very brief summary, a full biography may be read here..
Born 1944, Cheltenham, grew up in Hendon.
Father and mother both musicians.
Spent 4 years at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Tutors: Edmund Rubbra, Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, James Gibb, Brian Trowell. Became B.Mus at Durham University. Very wide musical interests – from jazz to pop and classical, and everything in between.
I have composed 7 Symphonies, concertos for the flute, oboe, clarinet, guitar, saxophone and piano, and have also composed numerous film and TV scores, winning 4 BAFTA awards and three Ivor Novello Awards along the way.
Throughout my 20′s and early 30′s I arranged tracks for singers Mel Torme, Shirley Bassey, Cilla Black, The Hollies, Jackie Lee, Judith Durham, Colin Blunstone and saxophonist Phil Woods, and composed innumerable commercials, especially Martini (The Right One) and Black Magic.
BAFTA
For Film and TV my BAFTA Awards are for La Vie en Rose, Agatha Christie’s ‘Poirot’, Middlemarch, and Porterhouse Blue, and my Ivor Novello Awards are for Rebecca, Under Suspicion, and Firelight.
The Big Battalions, Wild Africa, Cold Lazarus, When the Whales Came and Winalot have also been nominated for BAFTAs and Ivors.
Conducting the RPO
Recordings of Symphonies 3 & 4, and Concerto for Oboe and Strings are available on the Chandos label.
The Film and Television Music of Christopher Gunning is also available on Chandos.
Symphony no 5 and Concertino for Flute & Small Orchestra have just been recorded and are awaiting release.
My Guitar Concerto is to be performed by Craig Ogden on December 1st 2011.
music credits is here.