Graham Fitkin was born in Cornwall in 1963, studied at Nottingham University with Peter Nelson and Nigel Osborne and then travelled to The Netherlands to study with Louis Andriessen at Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague. 

Graham has been associated with the London Chamber Orchestra since 1998 when LCO performed the world premiere of SERVANT in Dublin.

As part of his Residency with LCO, the orchestra has jointly commissioned a new piano concerto to be premiered in Autumn 2010.  LCO invited as partners in this commission, the Tokyo Symphony and Athens Camerata.  Alongside this, over the next two years, LCO will programme a number of Graham's existing works and has, through LCO New, invited him to present a selection of contemporary composers he considers important. 

Graham has collaborated with many of today's foremost performers of new music including the Nederlands Blazersensemble, Apollo saxophone Quartet, Smith Quartet and Ensemble Bash, and has received commissions from the Halle Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, English Northern Philharmonia, RSNO, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Ulster and the Nederlands Radio Orchestra.  More recent works include Graham's Double Concerto for two Pianos and Orchestra, CIRCUIT, composed for Noriko Ogawa and Kathryn Stott.  Recent performances have come from Tokyo Philharmonic, Tokyo Symphony and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.



Isobel Waller-Bridge interviews Graham Fitkin:

Do you come from a musical family?
Half and half.  My mum taught piano, in fact she taught me and very wisely allowed me to give up five times before I was 11, knowing that I'd be drawn back to it.     My Dad on the other hand would readily admit that he has no idea about music at all, and only understands the notion of pitch through physics not aurally.   But, and it's a big but, I believe he has over my lifetime certainly developed a real feel for certain music and he is very creative in
other areas, specifically lighting.

What is the first significant sound you remember hearing?
Well the truth is I have no idea.   But there were sounds which were important when I was a child which I can remember very clearly and were omni-present throughout those years.   My Dad used to have a lot of reel to reel tape recorders which he used in local theatre productions and that sound of rewinding quarter inch tape to find an exact moment is ingrained in my brain.   Probably encouraged by him, I had a small tape recorder which I used to use, recording bird song and traffic noise etc    

Which music and which composer did you like first?
Well, of course there many. My brother gave me a recording of Rite of Spring when I was pretty young and I'd never heard anything like it before so that was quite a big moment.  He also introduced me to Keith Jarrett, Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock all of which I avidly listened to.    I was quite keen on Slad as a young boy, particularly the classic You Know How to Squeeze Me, Please Me.   On piano I liked Prokofiev, Gounod and Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata - though in my  youthful arrogance I thought it would have been better in A minor, with different chordal inversions and a smattering of jazz chords.   So I rewrote it for him.

How important is the music of jazz, rock and pop to you?
As important as classical music, although these preferences will fluctuate depending on my current interests and I probably glean different things from different genres.

Why did you decide to be a composer?
I didn't.    I just decided that I wanted to do a little more composing, and then a little more and then a little more after that.    There were things I wanted to try, sounds I couldn't hear until I had a bach at making them happen.    And I'd still like to do a little more.

You created your ensemble in 1996.   Why?
Well, it's been important to me that I actually work with musicians.   I like to be involved in the process of music making right from when it leaves my head through to when it goes into someone else's.
So I want to be involved in performance, conducting, education, publishing etc and the benefits are immense for me.   I get feedback directly, I have personal relationships with musicians, they in turn influence what I do, and I get to know listeners and performers round the world.

Do you think music and composers have a big influence on society?
Not enough.   I suppose I think that culture in all its forms and creativity should be central to society. Otherwise life is essentially - we are born, we live, we create other people to live after us, we die, they die and so it goes on.   Life's infrastructure is so complicated, and the energy spent on keeping it all ticking over is so vast, that those other things in life (those things which make life interesting or special) are often sidelined to the cause of just 'keeping going'.  

Where do you find your inspiration?   Is composing a spiritual process for you?
I don't go out of my way to get inspired.   Thinking and feeling or occasionally feeling then thinking is generally how it starts, although it might manifest itself in different ways.   I don't find the actuality of composing a spiritual process largely because it's such bloody hard work.   The end result may be different though.

How do you begin writing?
Well after the thinking/feeling bit, I generally find that I write things down on a piece of paper.   But they will be general thoughts, specific things to explore, maybe a plan or map of the possible piece but nothing too binding.  There my be specific musical things too at this stage or maybe not.   Then I will start to crystallise these.   I sometimes use a piano, sometimes a keyboard, computer and often a lot more paper.

Are you influenced by other art forms?
My  music is generally fairly abstract and non-programmatic, but of course the answer must be Yes.   I'm affected by what goes on and what I experience, but not just art forms.   Science, news, talking, politics etc all get in there somehow.

What's in your CD player/iPod this week?
Well, Ruth's taken the iPod away on tour, but the CD player has had some Sergio Mendes, some anonymous tangos and Bartok's Piano Concertos.   Plus a few other things.

Were you influenced by your mentors/teachers?
Yes, again all of them have had an impact.   Specifically, Stephen Hichens who taught me piano in my teens was great to be with and we spent a lot of time nattering in general about music, then Peter Nelson who I found incredibly encouraging and helpful.   Then Louis Andriessen in Holland for different reasons - i.e. I would have to justify pretty much everything I was doing - which was good.

How effective is Geamtkunstwerk or multi-media art in terms of engaging people with contemporary music?
Pretty much anything which is helpful in the process has the potential to be useful.    Certainly if I had the choice (and budget) I would like the experience of listening to my music to be aided by things outside the music itself (comfy seats, maybe a drink, some decent lighting etc).   Then of course there are works which require video, or staging, or texts etc in order to convey the ideas in the best possible manner - operas, theatre work, installations etc.   Sometimes though I find it hard as a listener, when there is so much to take in and I just want to listen to the music without all the other paraphernalia.  I think that as a society we are becoming very good at multi-tasking and accepting simultaneous multiple pieces of information at the same time - eating whilst walking, whilst talking on the phone whilst you friend next to you is doing the same thing etc etc - but perhaps we are losing the ability to focus on one thing for a longer period of time.

Your music is often referred to as minimalist.   Is this an accurate observation?
Minimalism is a label.  We seem to live at a time when labels are deemed necessary.   So I understand why.   But it's not a label
I would choose, because I see minimalism as a movement which came about at a particular time for particular reasons and that
time has gone and those reasons aren't around at the moment.     On the other hand, the term minimalist has changed so much
now that it is used for garden furniture and cutlery, so I'm not that bothered.

If there's already so much good music to listen to what's the point of more composers writing more music?
It's all about renewal.   New times, throw up new forms, more resonant modes of creating and anyway, if we'd followed the principle 'that's enough now' in 1850, we wouldn't have Debussy, Stravinsky, Picassor, Gershwin, The Beatles or Jazz.

What is the importance of LCO New: Explore?
I've probably answered this in the above questions and can only reiterate that I feel creativity is an important aspect of life and
composers and listeners should be valued members of society.   This project intends to encourage and facilitate links between
listeners and composers, assist younger composers on the long and never-ending journey of understanding why we compose,
and what we can do to make it better.

What's your musical philosophy?
Strength of idea, clarity of purpose.

Click here to find out more about Graham Fitkin from his website.

Keep your eyes on this page for news of upcoming LCO performances of Graham music!  AGNOSTIC is due to be performed in LCO's 09/10 season at St. John's, Smith Square.