John Croft

John Croft (b. 1971) studied philosophy and music at the Victoria University of Wellington, and composition and music cognition at the University of Sheffield. He has a PhD from the University of Manchester, where he studied with John Casken, and is a Laureate of the Jurgenson Foundation of Moscow . He has previously taught at the universities of Nottingham and Sussex. Since the orchestral piece Inventions de l’autre (composed in 1997 but premiered by the BBC Philharmonic in 2002), his music has increasingly drawn on the natural spectral properties of sounds as the basis for harmonic and temporal structures. His work focuses on the integration of performance and live electronics, as in Siramour, commissioned in 2002 by the London Sinfonietta, and murmures secrez…Avernales eaux, premiered by the Wellington-based ensemble Stroma.

John's music has been played by many ensembles and soloists, including the BBC Philharmonic, the London Sinfonietta, the Arditti String Quartet, Ensemble Exposé, Studiya Novoi Muzyki, Distractfold Ensemble, 175 East, Stroma, Marij van Gorkom, Philip Thomas, Matthew Barley, Richard Craig, Barbara Lüneburg, and Xenia Pestova. He received first prize in the 2001 Jurgenson International Composers' Competition for his String Quartet and the 2011 ICMA European Regional Award for ...ne l'aura che trema for alto flute and live electronics. His Intermedio III for bass clarinet and live electronics won the Prix Ton Bruynèl 2012. His opera-monodrama Malédictions d’une furie was premiered in 2012 at the Sounds New Festival, with Lore Lixenberg as the Fury.

Other works include per l’aer cieco (2004), premiered by the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, and Serenata, commissioned by Ensemble Exposé. In 2006 he completed La terra lagrimosa...una luce vermigila, a sonata for solo cello and live electronics, with soloist Matthew Barley, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, which was premiered at LSO St Luke’s.

He also teaches and writes on the philosophy and politics of music.