Biography
Graham enjoys an active and varied career as composer, musical director and pianist, artistic & festival director, lecturer, workshop leader and teacher. He gained his BA (Hons) music degree at Bristol University, following this with postgraduate studies at Guildhall School of Music & Drama, London, and at Nottingham and Huddersfield Universities. Principal appointments have been as Lecturer at North Warwickshire College, Fellow in Music at Bradford University, and more recently as Senior Lecturer at Leeds College of Music and currently Lecturer at Bath Spa University.
As choral conductor he has worked with Atherstone & Bedworth Choral Societies, and the choral societies and chamber choirs at Bradford & Huddersfield Universities, Leeds College of Music, and the highly acclaimed Leeds Guild of Singers. He is regularly in demand for choral workshops, “Come & Sing” events across the country, but is equally involved in community choirs, in running prison choirs, Singing for Lung Health groups and other singing for health initiatives. He is Director of 20,000 Voices, promoting the benefits of singing through masterclasses, courses, performances, workshops and creative projects.
As composer, Graham has a long list of commissions, and has won awards from the Yehudi Menuhin & Vaughan Williams Foundations, Greater London Arts and held Composer-in-Residence positions at Bretton Hall College, Wrexham Country Parks, and at Arts centres and theatres throughout England. Amongst recent commissions are Bakolo Drom, a violin concerto based on Balkan themes, commissioned by Harriet Mackenzie, premièred at Swaledale Festival; Kaito, for tenor saxophone and piano, premièred at the International Saxophone Congress in Bangkok, (and recently released on CD); Fable Fantaisiste, for the Polish cellist Evva Mizerska and Italian pianist Emma Abbate. The choral work Quis Expediet Domini was written for the world renowned contemporary vocal ensemble Exaudi, premièred at Hexham Abbey Festival, part of a trilogy of choral works setting texts by 8th century Venerable Bede. The trilogy includes Hymnus Canentes Martyrum and Christus Est Stella Matutina, premièred at a commemorative concert at the Bede’s World museum in Jarrow. His ACE commissioned opera Giovanni’s Women, and chamber opera Still Stories have been performed in major venues including the Royal Opera House Linbury Studio, Warwick Arts Centre, Chichester Festival Theatre. His latest work is a sound installation for an exhibition Being InBetween, opening in Halifax in February 2018, and on tour in the UK until 2019.
Graham’s PhD research into the contemporary use of medieval models by British composers led publication in 2017 by OUP of The Middle Ages in the Modern World. This interest is reflected in some of his own works, notably The Witch of Slatterdale, a series of dramatic songs for mezzo-soprano and ensemble, premièred at the Swaledale Festival and Ladder of Salvation, written for the Huddersfield University New Music Ensemble.
Graham is active as a conductor, piano accompanist and continuo player. He relinquished the post of Musical Director of Leeds Guild of Singers after 17 years in 2017, and has worked with the Orchestra of St John’s Smith Square, BBC Philharmonic, Sinfonia 21, Skipton Camerata and early music ensembles Charivari Agréable and Leeds Baroque Choir & Orchestra. In the theatre he has directed Eight Songs for a Mad King (Peter Maxwell Davies) and Walton’s Façade, and musicals from Cabaret, Chicago, Happy End to The Arcadians and South Pacific.
In 2010 he founded HISS – the Historically Informed Summer School, exploring the common roots of early and folk music, which now in its 8th year attracts participants from across four continents.
©2018 Graham Coatman
Biography
Graham enjoys an active and varied career as composer, musical director and pianist, artistic & festival director, lecturer, workshop leader and teacher. He gained his BA (Hons) music degree at Bristol University, following this with postgraduate studies at Guildhall School of Music & Drama, London, and at Nottingham and Huddersfield Universities. Principal appointments have been as Lecturer at North Warwickshire College, Fellow in Music at Bradford University, and more recently as Senior Lecturer at Leeds College of Music and currently Lecturer at Bath Spa University.
As choral conductor he has worked with Atherstone & Bedworth Choral Societies, and the choral societies and chamber choirs at Bradford & Huddersfield Universities, Leeds College of Music, and the highly acclaimed Leeds Guild of Singers. He is regularly in demand for choral workshops, “Come & Sing” events across the country, but is equally involved in community choirs, in running prison choirs, Singing for Lung Health groups and other singing for health initiatives. He is Director of 20,000 Voices, promoting the benefits of singing through masterclasses, courses, performances, workshops and creative projects.
As composer, Graham has a long list of commissions, and has won awards from the Yehudi Menuhin & Vaughan Williams Foundations, Greater London Arts and held Composer-in-Residence positions at Bretton Hall College, Wrexham Country Parks, and at Arts centres and theatres throughout England. Amongst recent commissions are Bakolo Drom, a violin concerto based on Balkan themes, commissioned by Harriet Mackenzie, premièred at Swaledale Festival; Kaito, for tenor saxophone and piano, premièred at the International Saxophone Congress in Bangkok, (and recently released on CD); Fable Fantaisiste, for the Polish cellist Evva Mizerska and Italian pianist Emma Abbate. The choral work Quis Expediet Domini was written for the world renowned contemporary vocal ensemble Exaudi, premièred at Hexham Abbey Festival, part of a trilogy of choral works setting texts by 8th century Venerable Bede. The trilogy includes Hymnus Canentes Martyrum and Christus Est Stella Matutina, premièred at a commemorative concert at the Bede’s World museum in Jarrow. His ACE commissioned opera Giovanni’s Women, and chamber opera Still Stories have been performed in major venues including the Royal Opera House Linbury Studio, Warwick Arts Centre, Chichester Festival Theatre. His latest work is a sound installation for an exhibition Being InBetween, opening in Halifax in February 2018, and on tour in the UK until 2019.
Graham’s PhD research into the contemporary use of medieval models by British composers led publication in 2017 by OUP of The Middle Ages in the Modern World. This interest is reflected in some of his own works, notably The Witch of Slatterdale, a series of dramatic songs for mezzo-soprano and ensemble, premièred at the Swaledale Festival and Ladder of Salvation, written for the Huddersfield University New Music Ensemble.
Graham is active as a conductor, piano accompanist and continuo player. He relinquished the post of Musical Director of Leeds Guild of Singers after 17 years in 2017, and has worked with the Orchestra of St John’s Smith Square, BBC Philharmonic, Sinfonia 21, Skipton Camerata and early music ensembles Charivari Agréable and Leeds Baroque Choir & Orchestra. In the theatre he has directed Eight Songs for a Mad King (Peter Maxwell Davies) and Walton’s Façade, and musicals from Cabaret, Chicago, Happy End to The Arcadians and South Pacific.
In 2010 he founded HISS – the Historically Informed Summer School, exploring the common roots of early and folk music, which now in its 8th year attracts participants from across four continents.
©2018 Graham Coatman