Thomas Hyde is a composer described by Opera Magazine as ‘clearly his own man on his own turf’ whose works are increasingly performed in Britain and abroad. Born in London he studied at Oxford University and the Royal Academy of Music where his teachers included Robert Saxton, Simon Bainbridge and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. He was Manson Junior Fellow at the Royal Academy of Music (2001-2) and more recently has taught at City University and Worcester College, Oxford. Since 2016 he has been Teaching Fellow and Lecturer in Music at King’s College, London. In 2017 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music.
Thomas Hyde’s largest work to date is the one-man opera, That Man Stephen Ward, premiered to great acclaim in 2008 and recently revived by Nova Music Opera at the Cheltenham Festival in 2015. A commercial recording, featuring Damian Thantrey in the title role, has just been issued by Resonus Classics. Other notable works include a string quartet (2009-10), a violin sonata for Jennifer Pike (2012), a piano trio (2016), and a series of choral works. Guild Records issued a disc devoted to his chamber music in 2012.
As well as his composing and teaching commitments, Thomas Hyde is chair of the Lucille Graham Trust, a member of the Little Missenden Festival committee and Presteigne Festival Advisory Group, and is also active as a writer on music. His study of David Matthews was published by Plumbago Books in 2014.
“I am delighted to be joining Composers Edition and look forward to a fruitful relationship as part of their catalogue of composers. CE is a pioneer in the new world of music publishing, helping to promote the latest music and thereby continuing the diversification of what, for want of a better word, is called contemporary music.”
Thomas Hyde
Forthcoming works for 2017/18 include a setting of the Magnificat commissioned by the Brugge Concertgebouw for performance by The Sixteen, a new work for the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in March 2018, and a comedy overture inspired by Les Dawson, to be premiered by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.
preview scores here
“Hyde is well able to create an atmosphere of abrasive turbulence … but he seems to give more time to a kind of flowing continuity, with long lines animated by unpredictable twists and turns.”
Arnold Whittall, Tempo
