Born in West Cornwall in 1963, Graham Fitkin studied at Nottingham University with Peter Nelson and Nigel Osborne and at the Koninglijk Conservatorium, Holland with Louis Andriessen. He has written extensively for dance, winning various awards and working with, amongst others, Wayne McGregor’s Random Dance, the Royal Ballet, Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company, New York City Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet and Munich Ballet. From 1994-96, Graham was composer-in-association with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, for whom he wrote five orchestral works. This lead to commissions from the Hallé Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, London Chamber Orchestra and the Britten Sinfonia.
Graham was also commissioned by a range of smaller ensembles and festivals such as Piano Circus, the Smith Quartet, Ensemble Bash, the Foundry, the Apollo Saxophone Quartet, the Netherlands Wind Ensemble, the Bath International Music Festival and the Ulster Festival.
In 1996 he launched the Graham Fitkin Group. The group regularly performs and workshops all over the UK. Community and education projects have been an important part of Graham’s work. In 1993 he was Programme Director of the spnm and since 1995 he has led education projects in Liverpool, Aberdeen, Bath, Belfast and Soweto, South Africa.
Recent projects include an interactive piece entitled Geography, commissions for the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, East of England Orchestra and Kathryn Stott. Recent CDs include Ironic (ensemble), Granite (orchestra) and Kaplan (keyboards).
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