BIOGRAPHY

Stuart Hancock - a composer and arranger of film, television, commercial, theatre and concert music, and a professional pianist and accompanist. Stuart was born in 1975. He studied at Pomona College, California and Downing College, Cambridge and, in 1998, graduated with distinction from the Masters course in composing for film and television at the London College of Music (where he studied with film composer Nigel Clarke). Between 1999 and 2005, he was full-time with London music production company Mcasso, where he composed and produced music for all commercial media. He now works as a busy freelance composer and orchestrator of film, television, commercial, theatre and concert music from his studio in north London.

He has won industry awards for his music and sound design on campaigns for the British Board of Film Classification, Burberry New York and the 2002 BBC World Cup coverage. He has also scored many films, both shorts and features: most notably EMR, which won the Raindance Film Festival and went on general release in the summer of 2005, following its Cannes premiere. 2001 saw the Royal Festival Hall premiere of his new score for the Hollywood silent movie Lucky Star, with the Tempus Chamber Orchestra. Stuart's soundtracks to two recent feature films - Underground and Bodyguard: A New Beginning - were released on CD and to download in June 2009, to rapturous reviews ("Hancock proves that his work is up there with the best that Hollywood has to offer. Expect great things from him in the future"; Darren Rea, review of Bodyguard: A New Beginning).

Stuart also composes for the theatre and concert hall. Recent concert works include a Double Flute Concerto; a quartet - Raptures - for flute, violin, viola and cello; a Violin Concerto, premiered with Paul Barrett and the Southbank Sinfonia in June 2005; and Bitter Suite: a collection of sinister settings of nursery rhymes, performed by the Juice Vocal Ensemble and the London Phoenix Orchestra, at St John's Smith Square in June 2006 and broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Forthcoming commissions include a choral work with lyricist Kit Hesketh-Harvey for the Bath Camerata, to be premiered at London's prestigious Wigmore on December 17th 2009, and a children's opera for W11 Opera, to be staged at the Riverside Studios, London, in December 2010.

For examples of Stuart's compositions, please click here.