Gareth Moorcraft: The Open Fund for Music Creators

Building on the recent success of his solo recorder work ‘Diaries of the Early Worm’ (winner of the solo/duo Ivor Novello Award, 2020), this project allows composer Gareth Moorcraft to continue his collaboration with recorder virtuoso Tabea Debus. Gareth will compose a substantial new work for recorder, viola de gamba, theorbo/lutes, and a mixed ensemble of ‘modern’ instruments. Taking inspiration from songs and musical traditions from different eras, the work will build on Gareth’s interest in musical borrowing and ‘creative transcription’, inhabiting the grey areas between arrangement and free composition. A series of workshops exploring the ‘early’ historical instruments will inform the compositional process, and the completed work will be recorded for online distribution in Autumn, 2021.

Gareth Moorcraft is a British composer based in London and South Wales. His music has been performed and broadcast internationally by leading ensembles including the Philharmonia, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Endymion, Chroma, Cellophony, the Britten-Pears Ensemble, and Sinfonia Cymru. Gareth is regularly commissioned by festivals in the UK and recordings of his work have been released by NMC Recordings and Delphian Records. He is the recipient of the prestigious RPS Composition Prize, the Ty Cerdd Composition Prize, and the BASCA British Composer Awards Student Prize. Gareth is a lecturer and researcher at the Royal Academy of Music, London.