David Sawer

Noted for his precision and purity of vision, London-based composer David Sawer studied at the University of York and won a scholarship to study in Cologne with Mauricio Kagel. A former Composer-in-Association with the Bournemouth Orchestras, he is a Fulbright-Chester-Schirmer Composition Fellow, an Arts Foundation Composer Fellow, and a Paul Hamlyn Foundation award winner whose works are heard regularly in concert halls and opera houses throughout the UK and Europe.

A flair for dramatic character and a fascination with theatrical possibilities permeates many of his works. In Byrnan Wood, his first large-scale orchestral score premiered at the BBC Proms by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sir Andrew Davis, the image from Macbeth of Malcolm’s disguised army advancing on Dunsinane provided an initial abstract idea of sound transforming itself as it moves through the orchestra. Several of his scores have been choreographed, or written with dance in mind, including Cat’s-Eye by Richard Alston for Ballet Rambert, Rumplestiltskin for BCMG, and April/March by Aletta Collins for the Royal Ballet, marking its first appearance in the new Linbury Theatre.

Sawer’s music is a natural fit for the theatre and he has frequently found himself collaborating with directors and playwrights, including Edward Bond and Richard Jones for companies including The Young Vic and Royal Shakespeare Company. He has written four operas, each unique in character and scale, encompassing The Panic for the Royal Opera House’s Garden Venture; From Morning to Midnight for the mainstage at English National Opera, for which he received an Outstanding Achievement nomination at the Laurence Olivier Awards; Skin Deep, an operetta written to a libretto by comedian Armando Iannucci for Opera North, Bregenz and Copenhagen; and most recently The Skating Rink, for Garsington Opera which opened to 4- and 5-star reviews and was described as “spectacularly eclectic” and “an utterly compelling experience”. 

Other major scores include the greatest happiness principle commissioned by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales; the Trumpet Concerto and Flesh and Blood, both for the BBC Symphony Orchestra; Tiroirs, commissioned by the Michael Vyner Trust for the London Sinfonietta; Rebus for Musikfabrik; Coachman Chronos for Aurora Orchestra at the Science Museum; and The Lighthouse Keepers for Cheltenham Festival. 

Sawer’s music is published by Edition Peters and Universal Edition.