David Roche

Biography

British-Welsh David John Roche's Music is celebratory, intense, and bright - consciously in opposition to the circumstances of the world in which it is written. Roche's compositions are politically motivated and strongly influenced by the themes of abandonment, alienation, and violence. He believes that there is new, undiscovered compositional territory to be found through the musical representation of marginalised voices, that the clearest, most direct way of developing new modes of expression and representation are to be found in the syntheses of the vast, varying methods of musical construction available to composers writing music today.



Roche's music - described as 'exhilarating', 'the highlight of the evening', and 'awesome' - has been performed by an array of different musicians and ensembles; BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Orion Orchestra, Cambridge Graduate Orchestra, BBC Singers, Grand Band, Britten Sinfonia, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Notes Inegales, Ensemble ISIS, Dr. K Sextet, Magnard Ensemble, Darragh Morgan and Mary Dullea, Psappha's Benjamin Powell, Richard Casey, Lisa Nelsen, Richard Watkins, Huw Watkins, and many others. He has been commissioned by the British Library, Centre of the Cell, Cambridge University Communications Department, and many other private classical music enthusiasts. 



Roche's compositional pursuits have been generously supported by over 20 academic awards and bursaries including a Psappha Composers' Bursary, a Friends of Musicfest Aberystwyth Bursary, a Vale of Glamorgan Festival Composers' Bursary,  a Fletcher Players Funding Grant, numerous consecutive scholarships relating to 'excellent' or 'exceptional academic performance', an AHRC studentship, and 7 Seton Cavendish Travel Grant Awards. He read Music at Cardiff University, University of Oxford (Brasenose College), and is the first person to read for a Ph.D in Music Composition at the University of Cambridge (Downing College).

Composer Website