Joby Talbot

Biography

Joby Talbot (born 25 August 1971) is a British composer. He has written for a wide variety of purposes and an accordingly broad range of styles, including instrumental and vocal concert music, film and television scores, pop arrangements, and works for dance. He is therefore known to sometimes disparate audiences for quite different works.

Prominent compositions include the a cappella choral works The Wishing Tree (2002) and Path of Miracles (2005); orchestral works Sneaker Wave (2004), Tide Harmonic (2009), Worlds, Stars, Systems, Infinity (2012) and Meniscus (2012); the theme and score for the popular BBC Two comedy series The League of Gentlemen (1999–2002); silent film scores The Lodger (1999) and The Dying Swan (2002) for the British Film Institute; film scores The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005), Son of Rambow (2007) and Penelope (2008).

Works for dance include shorter works Chroma (2006), Genus (2007), Fool's Paradise (2007), and Chamber Symphony (2012); and three full-length narrative ballet scores, commissioned by The Royal Ballet and the National Ballet of Canada, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (2011, revived 2012 and 2013), The Winter's Tale (2014), and Like Water for Chocolate (2022).

Talbot premiered his first opera in January 2015 with Dallas Opera, a one-act work entitled Everest to a libretto by Gene Scheer, which follows three of the climbers involved in the 1996 Mount Everest disaster.

Talbot was born in August 1971 in Wimbledon, London. He grew up in Mitcham, south London, and attended King's College School, Wimbledon, on a music scholarship from the age of eight.

Talbot played the piano and oboe, studied composition privately with Brian Elias, and after receiving a Bachelor of Music from the Royal Holloway University of London, he completed a Master of Music (Composition) at Guildhall School of Music and Drama under Simon Bainbridge.

Known for

Wonka

Music Director

2023

Wonka