Chris Gunning Concert

Such a wonderful tribute to Chris with music from every part of his life – TV, film, concertos, symphonies.

Soloists John Williams, Colin Blunstone, John Harle, Harriet MacKenzie, Richard Harwood and Verity, Gunning-Olsson. Also giving their services to play in the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra – Catherine Handley, Roderick Elms and Dave Arch. The RPO was led by Stephen Morris with conductors Kenneth Woods and Paul Bateman. All introduced by Chief Inspector Japp himself – Philip Jackson and produced by Tommy Pearson. Excerpts from the concert will be played on Classic Fm throughout March 23rd 2024.

Photos by Julie Edwards

Christopher Gunning Remembered

Sunday March 10th at Cadogan Hall, London 6.30pm.

Honoured to be sharing the conducting of a very special night celebrating the diverse and glorious music of the late Christopher Gunning, a wonderful friend and superb composer.

Sharing the stage with Ken Woods (conductor), John Harle (saxophone), Dave Arch (piano), Colin Blunstone (singer) Verity Gunning-Olsson (oboe), Harriet Mackenzie (violin) and John Williams (guitar) along with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra who have recorded many of Chris’ works.

Coming up in 2023…

Film music concert with City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in Symphony Hall, Birmingham.

Performances of my new arrangements for the New Century Chamber orchestra in San Francisco, directed by Daniel Hope. Music by Schubert, Lili Boulanger, Debussy and Humperdink.

Performances of arrangements for Nils Landgren, Daniel Hope and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra.

Performance of ‘Berlin 1938’ arrangement at the Verbier Festival following this year’s successful performances in San Francisco.

When arranging I have my screens rotated to ‘portrait’ so that I can get a complete page of an orchestra score on the screen.

America – Daniel Hope

For me a very important new album recently released on Deutsche Grammophon as I have arranged almost all of it. The only piece that didn’t need arranging was Copland’s ‘Rodeo’ as it was already written for strings. New suites for solo violin and strings by Kurt Weill, George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein and individual pieces by Copland, Duke Ellington, Cooke, Ward and Price – a unique tour through the different voices of American music.

I arranged the Kurt Weill Suite in 2014 for concert use and publication by Schott. It was originally written for full symphony orchestra and is now re-arranged for strings plus jazz guitar and drums. The Gershwin Suite for violin and strings followed in 2018 and jazz trio was added later. Then came the Bernstein West Side Story Suite in 2019, accepted by the Bernstein Estate and published by Boosey and Hawkes. It’s a thrill to have them all together on one album and my heartfelt thanks to Daniel for so many wonderful ideas and commissions.