Roderick Skeaping |
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"...Visual images and narrative ideas have been the inspiration for many of my works. Cires, Bells, Chants and Whispers (premiered at London’s Spitalfields Festival 2000) was my response to the medieval imagery in the novel The Name of the Rose: and Five Musical Maquette (commissioned by the SPNM for the Liverpool Tate) grew out of a search for musical equivalents to five contemporary sculptures. Similarly, Morphic Fields, (a music theatre piece commissioned by the Gogmagogs for performance in Edinburgh and New York) explores the controversial theories of scientist Rupert Sheldrake.
Many of my pieces also incorporate traditional and folk idioms of many cultures, particularly Eastern Europes and the Arab world. Others mix historic and contemporary themes.
I have also written for string ensembles (I trained at the Royal College of Music, later holding a Leverhulme Research Fellowship) and also for choirs including the BBC Singers, the Zemel Choir and the Finchley Children’s Music Group, who premiered The Elements and five Sephardic Songs at QEH.
Roddy's website can be found at www.roddyskeaping.com
MUSIC FOR THEATRE
- Royal National Theatre
- The Night Season
- The London Cuckolds
- Sergeant Musgrave's Dance
- Hunchback
- My Dream of the Theatre
- She Stoops to Conquer
- Battersea Arts Centre
- The Dybbuk
- Shakespeare's Globe
- As You Like It
- Theatre Royal, Northampton
- The Lost Child
- The Caucasian Chalk Circle
- Theatre Royal, Northampton
- Equus
- Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith
- She Stoops to Conquer
- Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith
- The Relapse
- The Crucible, Sheffield
- She Stoops to Conquer
- New End Theatre
- The Dead Fiddler
MUSIC FOR FILM AND TELEVISION
- Unlikely Heroes
- Moriah Films 2004
- Mother Clap's Molly House
- Channel 4
- Charles Dickens' London
- BBC TV
- The Pianist (Roman Polanski)
- Incidental music
- Paradise Grove
- Feature Film (Recipient of Palm Springs Film Festival Award)
CONCERT COMMISSIONS/WORLD PREMIERES
EDUCATIONAL WORKS
- ‘Let’s make Tudor Music’
- Stainer & Bell: National Curriculum CD and Book - TES Award Winner Best Primary Schools Book)
- 'Piano Time Jazz' and
- 'Piano Time'
- OUP - Contributor
- 'Life Goes On - for Violin Ensemble
- OUP/Associated Board Music Medal Series
- ‘Ten ways to Swing a Cat’
- (10 pieces for Junior Orchestra)
- ‘Guy Fawkes- The Musical’
- Westminster Under School
- Ten Very Easy Jazz Pieces for Piano
- Daniel L’Homme
RECORDINGS INCLUDE:
PRESS COMMENTS
- ‘Roderick Skeaping's convivial score is smashing’
- OBSERVER
- ‘Skeaping’s superb piece ‘In Memory of’ is one of the evening’s most affecting moments’
- GUARDIAN
- ‘Roderick Skeaping's music with its ear for country airs perfectly complements this excellent production’
- WHAT’S ON
- ‘Roderick Skeaping's music combines acid commentary with Lulliesque pastiche’
- FINANCIAL TIMES
- ‘Skeaping’s hauntingly original music’
- THE STAGE
- ‘From the moment a quartet led by composer Roderick Skeaping takes the stage we know we are in safe hands’
- FINANCIAL TIMES
- ‘Intriguing and refreshing’
- GRAMOPHONE
- ‘Captivating - this disc is terrific value in every sense’
- ARTS TELEGRAPH
- ‘The spirit of carnivals, festivals and fairs’
- DAILY TELEGRAPH