Posted on 23/07/2012
Joby Talbot
BMus Music, 1992 RHBNC and Honorary Fellow
In 2011, the composer Joby Talbot enjoyed great success with his full length ballet for the Royal Ballet, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the first to be commissioned by the company for 15 years. Joby first worked with the Royal Ballet on the score of Chroma, their 2007 Olivier Award-winner. Shortly after graduating he was Musical Director and performer with the cult chart-topping band The Divine Comedy. In 1996 he was a finalist for BBC Young Composer of the Year. Dame Evelyn Glennie toured his 1998 percussion concerto, Incandescence. In 2004 he was Classic FM’s first resident composer and his BBC Proms commission, Sneaker Wave, was premiered. He has since composed widely for major orchestras, soloists and vocal groups, including the trumpet concerto, Desolation Wilderness, for Alison Balsom and Tide Harmonic for the Orchestre National de Lille. He has written several scores for television and film, notably The League of Gentlemen, BBC Young Musician of the Year, Chambers, Tomorrow's World, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Son of Rambow and a score for Alfred Hitchcock's silent The Lodger. Talbot premiered his first opera in January 2015 with Dallas Opera. A one-act work entitled Everest and with a libretto by Gene Scheer, it follows the three of the climbers involved in the 1996 Mount Everest disaster.