COMPOSER
Click here to view Duncan’s works...
Duncan Ward won the 2005 BBC Young Composer of the Year competition, and was formerly Principal Composer for the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. Signed by Peters Edition, his first published work Kerala Reverie received its American première at the WASBE Conference in Cincinnati in July 2009. He has been appointed as Lancashire Sinfonietta’s Composer in Residence for the 2010/11 season.
Rapidly emerging as a leading young British composer, Duncan has received premieres by groups such as the Endymion Ensemble, The Sixteen, the Navarra Quartet and Brass 10 at venues including the Barbican, Symphony Hall Birmingham, Cadogan Hall, and the Tate Modern. Internationally, 2009 alone saw performances in India, China, the USA, and across Europe. His compositions have been broadcast on both BBC Radio 3 and Radio 2.
Current projects include a BBC Radio 3 commission for Catherine Mackintosh (viola d’amore and continuo) and commissions for Grimethorpe Colliery Band, the RNCM Symphony Orchestra, Lancashire Sinfonietta, a solo guitar work for Stephen Hickey, and a cello concerto for Simon Turner, co-principal cellist of the Hallé Orchestra.
A recent collaboration with poet Jeremy Over led to them being awarded the Rosamund Prize 2010. After winning the 2009 John Golland Award, Duncan was commissioned to write a large-scale work for the RNCM Brass Festival 2010, ‘Between you, me and Pandora’s bedpost’. His marimba duo ’10-1’ was given six performances in December 2009 on the DYAD percussion duo’s tour of Scotland sponsored by the Tunnell Trust, and his previous work for the duo ‘Wak Wok Woo’ is featured on their latest album.
Illustrating a diverse range of influences, Duncan’s more commercial work has included being Composer for Coutts Bank’s Family Business Awards in 2008 and writing the theme-tune for the nationwide Children’s University. At 13 he directed a school production of his own musical Alice, and in 2006 he was asked by the Philharmonia Orchestra to compose a piece for their interactive electronic chair orchestra at the South Bank Centre. In the exclusive gift market, Duncan has written personalised compositions for a number of private clients.
Collaborating with acclaimed film artists Sophie Clements and Toby Cornish, he has composed the music for two short films that were shown as part of the BBC Proms. Previous cross-genre ventures have included work with dancers from the Laban Centre on an installation in the National Gallery. His string quartet Eugene Cruft’s Radio, recorded by the Solaris Quartet, was a finalist in the Imperial War Museum’s In Memoriam competition.
Duncan is currently studying with Adam Gorb at the RNCM, having previously studied with Paul Patterson, Gary Carpenter, Dominic Sewell and Rupert Bond.
"Remarkably accomplished. It doesn’t put a foot wrong"
Colin Matthews, The Guardian on Hopscotch
"the work proved to be a skilful amalgam of jazz, blues and classical elements bound up in a tough harmonic idiom that revealed a young composer of striking talent. It was gritty, complex stuff...with a sophisticated, eclectic and challenging musical language. There is little doubt that at just twenty years of age, Ward has a successful career ahead of him."
Chris Thomas, 4barsrest.com, on Between you, me and Pandora's bedpost
"a scintillating mix of flowing contrapuntal lines, a rich rhythmic vitality, a quirky melodic and harmonic jazz-influenced idiom"
Dominic Sewell, Composer