Nathaniel Stookey's 'The Composer is Dead' at London's Southbank Centre
8th April 2016
Illustration by Carson Ellis, from The Composer is Dead © Harper Collins
The Composer is Dead by Nathaniel Stookey with text by Lemony Snicket receives its London premiere at the Royal Festival Hall on April 16.
The 'deliciously morbid' (San Francisco Times) family-friendly guide to the orchestra is a Peter and the Wolf for the 21st century; a mischievous and witty tour of the orchestra presided over by an inquisitive narrator, suitable for young and old alike. Nicholas Parsons takes on the role of narrator and will join the Orpheus Sinfonia conducted by Thomas Carroll for the performance.
Book Tickets | View the Score
About Nathaniel Stookey
American composer Nathaniel Stookey (b.1970) has collaborated with many of the world’s greatest orchestras, among them the Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and the Hallé Orchestra, where he was composer-in-residence under Kent Nagano.
Recent works include Mahlerwerk, an orchestral homage to Mahler containing hundreds of fragments taken from the composer’s symphonies, and the critically acclaimed String Quartet No. 3 'The Mezzanine', for Kronos Quartet. A recording of Stookey’s Zipperz for two pop singers and orchestra featuring the Magik*Magik Orchestra will be released later this year. This month also marks the world premiere Yield To Total Elation for chamber orchestra, commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony and inspired by the architect A.G. Rizzoli’s imaginary city.
The Composer is Dead is one of the most widely performed classical works of this century and has been heard in five continents, everywhere from Carnegie Hall to the Sydney Opera House to Mexico City’s Palacio de Bellas Artes and Taipei’s National Theater. A book and CD is available from Harper Collins.
