John Harle is an Ivor Novello award-winning composer, saxophonist and record producer, whose work spans musical genres from classical to contemporary pop. He is the composer of two operas, 50 concert works and over 100 film and TV scores, including the theme to BBC1’s Silent Witness, and the epic score to Simon Schama’s A History of Britain. He has been commissioned four times by the BBC Proms, and has two Royal Television Society Awards for Best Music. John was artistic advisor and producer to Sir Paul McCartney for six years, and other major collaborations have included albums and tours with Elvis Costello and Marc Almond. A prominent media figure, he is a regular contributor to Radio 4’s Front Row, and has been a castaway on Desert Island Discs. His early work as a saxophonist gained public acclaim with his Saxophone Concertos album on EMI Classics which is widely seen as the definitive recording of the major classical works, and his playing has been the catalyst for an outpouring of new concertos by composers including Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, Marc Anthony Turnage, Sir John Tavener, Sally Beamish, Michael Nyman and Gavin Bryars.


September 2017