Mark-Anthony Turnage


Mark-Anthony Turnage CBE is an English composer of classical music.

Biography

Turnage was born in Corringham, Essex. His initial musical studies were with Oliver Knussen, John Lambert, and later with Gunther Schuller. He also has been strongly influenced by jazz, in particular by the work of Miles Davis, and has composed works featuring jazz performers including John Scofield, Peter Erskine, John Patitucci, and Joe Lovano.
Turnage has composed numerous orchestral and chamber works, and three full-length operas. Greek, composed with the encouragement of Hans Werner Henze and first performed in 1988 at the Munich Biennale, is based on Steven Berkoff's adaptation of Oedipus Rex. The Silver Tassie, first performed in 2000, is based on the play by Seán O'Casey. Anna Nicole, with a libretto by Richard Thomas and first performed in 2011, relates the rise and fall of Playboy model and media celebrity Anna-Nicole Smith. Other works include Three Screaming Popes, Your Rockaby, Yet Another Set To, and From the Wreckage. Blood on the Floor, for jazz quartet and large ensemble, contains nine sections with a shared theme of drug addiction, the section titled "Elegy for Andy" being a lament.
Turnage was the first Radcliffe Composer in Association with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra from 1989 until 1993 and between 2000 and 2003 was the BBC Symphony Orchestra's first Associate Composer. He was Composer in Residence with the London Philharmonic Orchestra from 2005 until 2010. Between 2006 and 2010, Turnage was a co-composer-in-residence of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a position he held alongside Argentinian composer Osvaldo Golijov.
In Autumn 2005, he was appointed the Royal College of Music's Research Fellow in Composition. In 2015 he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his services to music.

Works

Opera

TitleGenreSubdivisionsLibrettoPremiereTheatre
Greekopera2 acts, 90′the composer and Jonathan Moore, after the play by Steven Berkoff17 June 1988Munich Biennale
Twice Through the Heartdramatic scena3 parts, 30′Jackie Kay16 June 1997Aldeburgh Festival
Country of the Blindchamber opera 16 June 1997Aldeburgh Festival
The Silver Tassieopera4 acts, 120′Amanda Holden, after the play by Seán O'Casey16 February 2000English National Opera
Anna Nicoleopera2 acts, 120′Richard Thomas17 February 2011Royal Opera House, London
Coralineopera2 actsRory Mullarkey after the novella by Neil Gaiman27 March 2018Barbican Centre, London

Ballet