DAVID JOHN ROCHE
David's approved biographical and social media information can be found below (and here).
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David John Roche’s music is direct, determined, and loud. Strongly influenced by heavy metal, lush orchestral music, and his working-class Welsh background, David’s work has been praised for its “passages of intense expressive power” (Thomas Adès), described as “exquisite” (Adam Walton, BBC Introducing), and marked out as “bold, exciting, and beautiful” (Sir James Dyson).
In tandem with a consistent string of international performances and commissions, his compositions have been broadcast, televised, and written about internationally to millions of people (Rai5, Tellebelluno, S4C, NHK, BBC Radio 3, BBC Introducing, London Evening Standard, and many others). David has recently completed commissions for the Tanglewood Music Center, Tokyo Opera City Cultural Foundation, and the Solem Quartet, and he is now working on newly commissioned works for the Vale of Glamorgan Festival, Meta Arts, Jeremy Huw Williams, and Aberystwyth Philomusica, as well as writing a guitar concerto for Britten Sinfonia.
David's orchestral music has been performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Brazilian National Orchestra, Dolomiti Symphonia, Florence Philharmonic, Prato Camerata, Zhejiang Symphony Orchestra, Aberystwyth Philomusica, Orion Orchestra, Cambridge Graduate Orchestra, London Graduate Orchestra, Unicamp Orchestra, and many others. Almost every orchestral piece he has composed since 2020 has won one or more awards.
His chamber music has been commissioned and performed by Psappha Ensemble, Solem Quartet, Giovanni Albini, Brian Ellis, Siwan Rhys, New Hong Kong Philharmonia, Fresh Inc., Less Than 10 Ensemble, and many others. His compositions regularly win prizes (full list here) including 5 prizes at the IADCC, First Prize at the Dante Moro Composition Competition, First Prize at the Dante 700 Composition Competition, First Prize in the Orion Orchestra Composition Competition, and Second Prize in the Tōru Takemitsu Composition Award.
David has completed commissions for the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Jan Willem Nelleke and Jose Zalba Smith, Siwan Rhys, Astrid the Dutch Street Organ, Orion Orchestra and Dyson, Brian Ellis, Cambridge University Communications Department, Centre of Cell, Royal Observatory Greenwich, National Library of Wales, British Library, Psappha, Hear and Now in conjunction with Psappha, Psappha, Tŷ Cerdd and Hijinx Theatre, NAFTA Ensemble, and many others. He has long, collaborative, developed relationships with festivals and ensembles.
He has been awarded an Arts Council England Developing Your Creative Practice Grant, a Lithuanian Arts Council Grant, has received an AHRC studentship, undertaken a Tanglewood Fellowship, and was nominated for an award by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Overall, he has received more than 30 academic and professional awards.