JAMES LARK
Composer and Musical Director

Writing for theatre includes music, book and lyrics for Miracles at Short Notice (Musical Talk’s pick of the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe), award-winning Tony Blair – the Musical (‘the seeds are here for a much bigger production - here is talent to be nurtured’ – The Stage) and one-man show The Rise and Fall of Deon Vonniget (‘very funny…fantastically skewed’ – The New York Times). Original composition for theatre includes a substantial score for four actor-musicians for Watford Palace Theatre’s Lysistrata and original music for Dreamshed Theatre's The Borrowers as well as a setting of new words by Andrew Motion for Bush Theatre’s Sixty-Six Books at Westminster Abbey. As part as ongoing work with Io Theatre Company to develop a theatre language in which music plays a vital narrative role, co-adapted and scored children’s show The Snow Spider, which was given an eight-day workshop in 2010 with an early showing at the Roundhouse in Camden, and was awarded an Arts Council grant in 2011 for a further two weeks of development.

Have worked with a variety of groups as musical director, with experience of teaching challenging music to a mixture of adults and children in Richard Taylor’s Whistle Down the Wind (2005), and have conducted orchestral and choral ensembles. Have also written material and directed music for NewsRevue, Ealing Live! and Focus Theatre Company.

Wrote and directed the music for several short films, including animated short Savage Mountain (shown in the 2010 Edinburgh Film Festival), Beach (winner of two awards in the 2011 Strawberry Shorts film festival), Summer’s End (highly commended in the 2006 Andrew Cross Awards) and The Ghost of Kirkton Fell (shown at the Final Cuts Festival in Brighton).

Have had music performed by the choir of St Paul’s Cathedral, Cambridge New Music Society, English Voices and the Choirs of Trinity, Selwyn and Girton Colleges in Cambridge. Recent commissions include music for the Songmakers’ Almanac A Night in Venice at the Wigmore Hall, music for internationally renowned organist Guy Bovet, two organ voluntaries for a service in King’s College Cambridge celebrating the university’s 800th anniversary, and an anthem for James Bowman with the Chiesa Consort (winner of the 2006 Choir and Organ magazine carol competition). From 2008 to 2011 held the position of composer-in-residence at Bedford School for which I wrote numerous concert works, and from April 2012 will take on the role of Director of Music at Westminster Abbey Choir School.

Theatre
Composer, THE BORROWERS (December 2011) – Dreamshed Theatre, dir. Bill Cronshaw
Composer, 66 BOOKS (November 2011) – Bush Theatre/Westminster Abbey
Musical director/composer, MIRACLES AT SHORT NOTICE (August/September 2011) – BST Productions, dir. John Moule
Musical director/composer, THE SNOW SPIDER (April/May 2011) – Io Theatre Company, dir. Delyth Jones
Musical director/composer, LYSISTRATA (February 2009) –Watford Palace Theatre, dir. Delyth Jones
Musical director/composer, THE NEWSREVUE (April/May 2008) – dir. Max Webster
Musical director/composer, STOCKING FILLERS (workshop, Nov 2007) – Joinedupwriters, Mark Lindow
Lyricist/bookwriter/composer, TONY BLAIR – THE MUSICAL (July – September 2007) – Io Theatre Company, dir. Delyth Jones
Composer/performer, THE RISE AND FALL OF DEON VONNIGET (February/March/July/August 2006) – Io Theatre Company, dir. Delyth Jones
Adaptor/composer, THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE (May 2006) – John Paxton Primary School
Musical director/composer, LOST (May 2005) - The Humble Theatre Company, dir. Jodi De Souza
Musical director/composer, OEDIPUS (Feb 2002) – Catmalogian, Jon Croker

Short films
Composer, SAVAGE MOUNTAIN (2010) – Steve Warne
Composer, BEACH (2007) – Talk to Rex productions
Composer, HIDE AND SEEK (2006) – Talk to Rex productions
Composer, SUMMER’S END (2005) – Hired Thugs productions
Composer, THE GHOST OF KIRKTON FELL (2004) – Hired Thugs productions

Radio
Music/post-production, THE ‘DIVERSITY EXPLORED’ SEMINAR (May 2005) – BBC Radio
Composer, DO NOT BE AFRAID (serial, Dec 2004) – BBC Radio

Selected compositions
THERE IS NO ROSE (flexible anthem for choir, organ/piano and optional trumpet; 2011)
THE SINGER (voice and piano) – written for When You Hear My Voice and performed by Kieron Brown (2011)
MAGNIFICAT AND NUNC DIMITTIS - written for The Book of New Canticles vol. 1, published by Shorter House (2011)
MUSIC FOR A SMALL UNIVERSE (orchestra) – written for Bedford school first orchestra (2010)
THE EARTH EXHALES (tenor and piano) – written for 'Out of the Piano' at the Cochrane Theatre (2010)
VENICE (tenor and piano) – written for Graham Johnson and performed by the Songmaker's Almanac at the Wigmore Hall (2010)
COME WIND, COME WEATHER (dance band) – written for Bedford school dance band (2010)
STRANGE ARE THE GIFTS (SATB choir and organ) – written for the chapel choir of Bedford school (2009)
AS THE WINDS AND THE MONTHS (wind quintet) – written for Bedford School wind quintet (2009)
FIVE VARIATIONS IN SEARCH OF A THEME (full orchestra) – written for Bedford School (2009)
FANTASIA ON A THEME BY GIBBONS (organ) – written for the CULS 800th anniversary service, King’s College, Cambridge (2009)
PAEAN (organ) – written for the CULS 800th anniversary service, King’s College, Cambridge (2009)
ASCENDIT DEUS (boys’ voices and organ) – written for the chapel choir of Bedford school (2009)
SINFONIA CONCERTANTE (flute, oboe and strings) – written for Bedford school chamber orchestra (2008)
IF YE WOULD HEAR (SATB choir and organ) – written for the choir of Bedford School Chapel (2008)
A CHILD OF THE SNOWS (SATB choir) – commissioned and performed by the choir of St Mark’s, Newnham (2007)
VERTE PAGINAS (boys’ voices and organ) – commissioned by Malcolm Archer for the boys of St Paul’s Cathedral (2007)
SONGS OF EXILE (high voice/piano) – first performed by Alastair Bennett at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (2007)
A LOVER’S COMPLAINT (countertenor/SATB choir) – commissioned by the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, first performed by James Bowman and the Chiesa Consort at St Andrew’s, Holborn (2005)
JACOB’S WELL (SATB choir and organ) – commissioned and performed by the choir of Girton College, Cambridge (2004)
FANTASIA FOR ORGAN (organ) – commissioned to commemorate the new St. Martin organ in the chapel of Girton College, Cambridge, and first performed by Guy Bovet (2003)
PRECES AND RESPONSES (SATB choir) – first performed by the chapel choir of Girton College, Cambridge (2002)
VIOLIN CONCERTO (violin solo, strings and harp) – first performed by Naomi Rump and the Girton College Music Society (2002)
HE WAS MADE MAN (SATB choir) – commissioned by the Cambridge Britten Festival and first performed by English Voices (2001)
CORPUS CHRISTI CAROL (SATB choir) – commissioned and recorded by the choir of Girton College, Cambridge (2001, available on The Ages of Elizabeth GCD004)

Arrangements
TRELAWNEY, DANNY BOY, THE PRETTY PLOUGHBOY (SATB folksong arrangements)
ABBA MEDLEY (available both for double SATB choir and string quartet)
Various descants, commissioned and recorded by the choir of Girton College, Cambridge on The Complete New English Hymnal vol 17 (PRCD717)

Awards
MTM:UK Musical Theatre Awards, Edinburgh Fringe 2007 – commendation for Tony Blair – the Musical
Winner, Choir and Organ advent carol competition, 2006

OTHER SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

Editing/producing: have edited, produced and mixed tracks for theatre productions (including The Borrowers in 2011) and film soundtracks (including Purgatory in 2011 and Hide and Seek in 2006), as well as produced the album Delicious With Cheese for close harmony quartet The Bath Olivers and recorded an album of music from The Rise and Fall of Deon Vonniget (released by Friday Audio). I also have experience of recording and editing packages for BBC radio.

Instrumental skills: grade 8 piano; grade 8 violin, with orchestral experience (2nd violin leader Cheltenham Symphony Orchestra 1998-99) and experience of playing in jazz/blues bands; viola; harmonica; ukulele.

Singing experience: a member of Girton College Chapel Choir between 1999 and 2004, touring with the choir in Switzerland, Ireland and South-East Asia, and performing at  venues including St. John’s Smith Square, Sherbourne Abbey and St Sepulchre's.  I have featured on four CDs recorded by the choir and was awarded a college choral scholarship in 2001.

Music tuition: I teach violin, piano and music theory, and supervise composition, 20th century music and other subjects for the Cambridge music tripos.