Gorton, David

David Gorton (b.1978) is a composer based in London. A winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize, his large-scale works include "The Fall of Babel" for the BBC Symphony Orchestra, "Oblique Prayers" for Claire Booth and the London Sinfonietta, and "Schmetterlingsspiel" for Christopher Redgate and Ensemble Exposé.

Described by Gramophone magazine as working in the "more radical domain" of British music, David Gorton’s works are often characterised by microtonal tuning systems, performer virtuosity, and the compositional reimagining of early music.

Since 2010 four portrait albums have been released of his music on the "Métier", "Toccata Classics", and "Neos" labels. "Trajectories" (Métier, 2010) emerged from a series of residencies at the Tate Gallery in St Ives and includes "String Quartet: Trajectories", commissioned for the Kreutzer Quartet to be performed in the sea-facing gallery space. "Orfordness" (Métier, 2014) explores ideas of landscape and memory, taking its name from a solo piano piece written for Zubin Kanga that draws on programmatic references to the abandoned military base on Orford Ness. This preoccupation with East Anglian landscapes is continued in other works, including a collaboration with photographer Claire Shovelton resulting in "Burgh Castle", written for CHROMA and pianist Roderick Chadwick at the Huddersfield Festival. "Variations on John Dowland" (Toccata Classics, 2017) and “Farnabye’s Maske” (NEOS, 2023) represent another compositional preoccupation, that of late sixteenth- and seventeenth-century music. The first disc contains works based on original material by John Dowland: "Lachrymae Variations" for the string orchestra Longbow, and "Forlorn Hope" for guitarist Stefan Östersjö. Exploration of this compositional interest is continued in the second album, including "Concerto su temi Torelli" for recorder player Olwen Foulkes and violinist Peter Sheppard Skærved and "For some friends (after Matthew Locke)" for Peter Sheppard Skærved and pianist Daniel-Ben Pienaar.

David Gorton was a student at Durham University, King’s College London, and the Royal Academy of Music, studying composition with Harrison Birtwistle and Simon Bainbridge. He has been an associate researcher at the Orpheus Institute in Ghent, and has taught at the Royal Academy of Music since 2006, where he is a Professor of the University of London.