Paul Barker (RISK = 1%)

Paul Barker was a boy chorister at Jesus College, Cambridge before studying piano and composition at the Guildhall School of Music (GGSM) and Durham University (MMus), winning several awards, including a Countess of Munster Scholarship and the Royal Philharmonic Society Prize. He is currently finishing his PhD at Hertfordshire University.

His 11 chamber operas have received widespread critical acclaim, internationally performed, recorded and televised. For 8 years he was Artistic Director of Modern Music Theatre Troupe; he was first Chair of the Opera and Music Theatre Forum, 1993-4; Artistic Director of ENO's youth group, Live Culture, 1995-6;Musical Director of Proteus Theatre Company,1996-8M; Composer in Association with the London Mozart Players, 1993-5, for whom he wrote a concerto for Tasmin Little. He is an experienced collaborator in devised work with several organisations, composing for over 40 European stage productions for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, English National Opera, London International Opera Festival, West Sussex Youth Theatre, Opera North, Arts Council Contemporary Music Network, Trinity College of Music, with directors Bill Gaskill, Chris Newell and Chris Baldwin.

Forthcoming commissions include: Bosque para Camera, a video installation involving the Cuarteto Latinoamericano, to be inaugurated in a Mexico City museum in the autumn of 2003; Before the Beginning, a textless a cappella opera for the Festival of Mexico in 2004; a clarinet quintet commissioned by Joan Enrique Lluna and the Brodsky Quartet for 2005; His book Composing for Voice, is published by Routledge in New York, in October 2003. He is also co-author of a book, Devising - A Practical Guide" published by the Crowood Press (UK) in 2002.