Joby Talbot

Joby Talbot's compositional aesthetic threads through classical and concert works, projects with choreographers, and scores for television and film. In his first collaboration with Closed Circuit director John Crowley, he composed the score for the feature Is Anybody There?, starring Michael Caine.

Mr. Talbot studied composition privately with Brian Dennis and Brian Elias, prior to receiving tuition from Simon Bainbridge at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. On the concert platform, he has composed for major orchestras, soloists, and vocal groups. Works for large ensembles have included the trumpet concerto Desolation Wilderness, for Alison Balsom and the RLPO; Tide Harmonic, for the Orchestre National de Lille, which was a collaboration with choreographer Carolyn Carlson; and the 60-minute à cappella choral work Path of Miracles, for Nigel Short's Tenebrae choir.

BBC Proms commissioned his madrigal The Wishing Tree, for The King's Singers; Sneaker Wave, for the BBC National Orchestra of Wales; and an arrangement of Purcell's Chacony in G Minor for the BBC Symphony Orchestra. As an arranger, Mr. Talbot has worked with musicians including Paul McCartney, Tom Jones, Air, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Neil Hannon and The Divine Comedy (for and with whom he also wrote and performed), Travis, and Ute Lemper, as well as with record producer Nigel Godrich.

His music has attracted such choreographers as Royal Ballet resident choreographer Wayne McGregor, with whom he collaborated on Entity for Random Dance, Genus, co-written with the musician Deru, for the Paris Opera Ballet, and Chroma, for the Royal Ballet. The latter was choreographed to his original works alongside his arrangements of songs by The White Stripes from the XL Recordings album Aluminium, which he also produced. Following their work together on Fool's Paradise for Morphoses, in 2011 he and choreographer Christopher Wheeldon premiered their full-length ballet of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland for The Royal Ballet and The National Ballet of Canada.

For film and television, Mr. Talbot graduated from scoring classic silent films including Alfred Hitchcock's The Lodger for the British Film Institute to writing the themes and scores for the comedy series The League of Gentlemen (for which he won a Royal Television Society Award) and Psychoville. His feature film scores include ones for John Landis' Burke and Hare, and Garth Jennings' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Son of Rambow. He composed the score, and developed song arrangements with young musicians, for Marc Evans' Hunky Dory, starring Minnie Driver.

He premiered works with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Netherlands Dance Theatre, and the China NCPA Orchestra. He also oversaw the returns of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chroma, Fool's Paradise, and Path of Miracles to houses worldwide.

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