David Sawer

Biography

Sawer was born in Stockport, England. After attending Ipswich School, he studied music at the University of York where he began composing for contemporary music-theatre pieces. He directed the UK premieres of Mauricio Kagel's Kantrimiusik and Mare Nostrum at the ICA, conducted the UK premiere of Szenario, and appeared as solo performer in Phonophonie at the South Bank Centre, London, and in the world premiere of Harrison Birtwistle's Gawain at the Royal Opera House.

In 1984 he won a DAAD scholarship to study with Mauricio Kagel in Cologne. Even from this point his career, Sawer's music tends to define each piece within theatrical terms. Indeed, Sawer has described himself as a "theatre person". His works often reference the visual arts, and in particular surrealist imagery. For example, his piano piece, The Melancholy of Departure was inspired by the shadowy and irrational perspectives of a De Chirico painting.

In 1992 Sawer was awarded the Fulbright-Chester-Schirmer-Scholarship and lived in the USA for a year. He won a Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award in 1993, an Arts Foundation Fellowship in 1995 and a residence with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in 1996. He was awarded a Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship in 2006 and a MacDowell Colony Fellowship, taking residence in 2016. He is a Professor of Composition at the Royal Academy of Music, London.

Sawer has received numerous commissions that have resulted in impressive works for the concert hall, dance, film, theatre and radio. His 50-minute radio composition Swansong (1989), a collage of orchestral, choral and electronic sounds, inspired by the work of Hector Berlioz, won a Sony Radio Award and a Prix Italia Special Mention.

Sawer's work reflects a variety of influences, from Igor Stravinsky to György Ligeti and Luciano Berio. Certain characteristics remain from his early music: for instance the blurring of background and foreground in his first orchestral work, Trompe l'oeil (1982; since withdrawn).

Ensembles who have performed his work include Asko/Schoenberg Ensemble, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Continuum Ensemble, Israel Contemporary Players, Juilliard Ensemble, Klangforum Wien, London Sinfonietta, Lontano, musikFabrik, Oberlin Sinfonietta, Remix Ensemble/Porto and Tokyo Sinfonietta. Orchestras who have performed his work include Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Basel Sinfonietta, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Philharmonic, Britten Sinfonia, Hallé, Hessischer Rundfunk Frankfurt, Netherlands Radio Symphony, Norddeutscher Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester, Norrköping Symfoniorkester, ORF Symphonieorchester, Philharmonia Orchestra.

In the theatre, he has worked with playwrights Howard Barker, Edward Bond, Nick Dear, Paul Godfrey and David Harrower.

Stage works

Recent works include Flesh and Blood, a dramatic scene for two voices and orchestra, premiered at the Barbican by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ilan Volkov, with soloists Christine Rice and Marcus Farnsworth, Wonder, for SATB choir, included in the Choirbook for the Queen, a concert suite of Rumpelstiltskin , premiered by BCMG at the Wigmore Hall, conducted by George Benjamin, and The Lighthouse Keepers, a radio play based on a Grand Guignol play, adapted by David Harrower, for the 2013 Cheltenham Festival. Future commissions include works for Onyx Brass/2014 New Music Biennial, Aurora Orchestra/NMC Recordings/Science Museum, London Sinfonietta/Royal Ballet/RPS Drummond Fund, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group/Feeney Trust, Garsington Opera and the BBC Singers.

Orchestral works

Choral works

Chamber works

Theatre

Radio