David Horne
Professor in Composition and Head of Graduate School
BMus (Curtis), PhD (Harvard)
Email: [email protected]
Develops and oversees postgraduate taught programmes.
Directs the RNCM’s Hub for Artistic Research in Performance (HARP)
David Horne holds a Personal Chair in Composition and is Head of the Graduate School at the Royal Northern College of Music. He has been commissioned and performed by major organisations internationally, including Carnegie Hall, London Sinfonietta, Nash Ensemble, Ensemble Moderne, the BBC Symphony, BBC Scottish Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, Hallé, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and the Scottish Chamber Orchestras. Recent performances have included by the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Opéra national de Lorraine and Ensemble 10:10.
Active as a pianist, and winner of the piano section, BBC Young Musician of the Year 1988, he has performed both his Piano Concerto and Flex with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and performed Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto no 3 at the BBC Proms. Career highlights include a full evening concert of his works given by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Clark Rundell, and he has had portrait concerts as part of the BBC Proms and the Philharmonia Orchestra’s Music of Today series. His music is published by Boosey and Hawkes.
A respected teacher and mentor David is in demand as an educator at all levels. He has mentored emerging composers on Making Music’s Adopt a Composer programme and frequently advises and mentors composers on Sound and Music projects. He has a keen interest in working with younger musicians and is a key tutor on the Sound and Music Summer School and leads education projects throughout the UK. He directs HARP, the RNCM’s Hub for Artistic Research into Performance and regularly presents on his research in the UK and abroad.
Current and Future Research
Horne, D., Different Ghosts for Clarinet Quintet, (2022)
Commission funded by Ida Carroll Trust
World premiere at Aldeburgh Festival, 9 June, 2023
Linda Merrick and the Kreutzer Quartet
Commercial recording forthcoming.
Castle Rock for Mixed Septet (2023)
Commission funded by St Mary’s Music School, Edinburgh January 2023
World premiere of work in St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh 29 March, 2023
Online premiere on YouTube 15 June, 2023
Brontë Songs for mezzo soprano and ensemble (2023)
World premiere at Made in Manchester festival, 5 May, 2023
London premiere at Wigmore Hall, 17 June, 2023
The Turn of the Tide (2006)
Several recent European performances, including available online:
WDR Sinfonieorchester, Cologne
BRSO, Munich
https://www.brso.de/en/audio-video/concert-videos/marie-jacquot-gautier-capucon/
Lorraine National Opera Orchestra
https://www.opera-national-lorraine.fr/en/activity/33-cap-sur-l-ecosse-horne-beethoven-mendelssohn
Invited Keynote speaker at Perform_Live Festival, Dublin, March 2022
Currently working on a monograph, Music in Contradiction, co-authored with Dr Simon Clarke. Planned for publication in 2024.
Research Funding
Vaughan Williams Foundation
The Hinrichsen Foundation
Undergraduate Teaching
Principal study composition tutor
Co-ordinator and tutor: Performing Contemporary Music (BMus3), Performance Studies (BMus4)
Lecturer: Research Electives:
Anatomy of the Symphony: from Berlioz to Shostakovich
20th Century Chamber Music
The Modern Concerto
20th Century Analysis
Five Great 20th Century Operas
The String Quartet from 1900
Puccini Operas
Wagner- Der Ring des Nibelungen
Composition and Performance
Lecturer: Music, Culture and Performance I (19th and 20th centuries)
Postgraduate Teaching
Principal study composition tutor
PG Composition Seminar
Co-ordinator and lecturer:
Composition Elective
Arrangement Elective
Research Lecture Recital
Research Methods: Artistic Research
Supervision: (Research Lecture Recital, Dissertations, Artistic Research)
Research Supervision
Primary supervisor:
Christian Jones- Performance
James Waide- Composition
Second supervisor:
Peggy Nolan- Performance
Nick Waldock- Performance
Previous supervision, completed:
Dr Jack Adler-McKean- Performance
Tubas, Tubists, and Composers: a mixed-methodological approach to performer- and composer-instrument relationships
Dr Jason Alder- Performance
Compendium of Sonic Possibilities of the Contrabass Clarinet: A Study of Cross-Compatibility and Composer Collaboration
Dr Kerry Baldwin- Performance
The Influence of Berio Sequenza V on Trombone Repertoire and Technique
Dr Isabel Benito-Gutierrez- Composition
Music as a multidisciplinary art: The exchange of music and visual elements, and the role of the participants
Dr Devon Bonelli
Fag on the Dance Floor: De/Reterritorializing through Composing Queer Theatrical and Narrative Music
Dr Elspeth Brooke – Composition
The Enactment of Cinematographic Techniques and Aesthetics of Perspective and Proximity in Musical Composition
Dr Nate Chivers- Composition
Derivative composition practice & application: creating a collection of works based on electric guitar solos
Dr Zakiya Leeming – Composition
Conception to Construction: Compositional decision-making informed by theories, patterns and processes in the physical, life, and computer sciences
Dr Gillian Menichino – Composition
Narrative musical structures: a composer’s perspective on form, process and product
Dr Olga Paliy – Performance
Taneyev’s Influence on Practice and Performance Strategies in Early 20th Century Russian Polyphonic Music
Dr Silvia Lucas Rodriguez- Performance
Issues of performance and synchronisation in music for piano and fixed media.
Dr Davide Sciacca – Performance
The guitar at the opera: an investigation into guitar repertoire inspired by the operas of Vincenzo Bellini
Dr Kiana Shafei- Performance
Intertextual perspectives on interpretation: a study of three Iranian composers’ piano works in the context of Persian music
Dr Maksim Štšura- Musicology (at the Royal College of Music)
Translating twenty-first-century orchestral scores for the piano: transcription, reduction and performability
Dr Jacob Thompson-Bell – Composition
Deconstructed narratives: a composer’s perspective on form, process and review.
Selected Outputs
Compositions
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- Horne, D., Different Ghosts for Clarinet Quintet, (2022)
- Horne, D., Castle Rock for Mixed Septet (2023)
- Horne, D., Brontë Songs for soprano and ensemble (2023)
Professional Activity
David is highly sought after as a workshop leader and has led projects and courses for the Aldeburgh Festival, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, London Sinfonietta, SPNM, and Wigmore Hall. He was composer in association with the RLPO from 2000-2003 and in 2006/07 was a visiting professor at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya. His compositions (over 90) are published exclusively by Boosey and Hawkes and his music has been recorded on several labels, including BMG and NMC.
Teaching composition at the RNCM since 2001, his students have won many awards and scholarships, including commissions and performances by prestigious orchestras and ensembles. A full-time member of staff since 2008, his teaching at undergraduate, postgraduate and research level reflects the wide range of his compositional and performance research.
David directs the RNCM’s Hub for Artistic Research in Performance (HARP) which held its first successful conference in 2018, attracting presenters from all over the world. He is an experienced External Examiner, holding this role at the Royal Academy of Music, University of Manchester, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Edge Hill University and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.
