Stephen Mark Barchan

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British composer Stephen Mark Barchan was born on 1st October 1982 in Middlesbrough. He studied with Richard Steinitz and Edwin Roxburgh (supported by the EMI Music Sound Foundation).

Prizes include the 4th Andrej Panufnik International Young Composers Competition (2002), Denis and Maud Wright Composition Award (2003), J Wood and Sons Prize (2004) and the Philip Bates Prize for Young Composers (2005, joint-second prize).

A version of the natural harmonic series (in equal temperament) has acted as a pitch reservoir for much of Barchan’s recent music. The alternation between pitches performed conventionally and the same pitches presented as natural harmonics is indeed a regular feature, alongside exploring the incredibly wide-ranging palette of sounds and techniques that are possible on individual instruments. It is here that his intense collaborative work with performers and ensembles has proved fruitful, with much of his discoveries frequently woven into the melodic, harmonic and contrapuntal framework of the score, giving each instrumental or vocal part its own unique and personal identity.

Barchan’s choice of titles has attracted much interest, often for their dark, melancholic and sometimes aggressive nature. Whilst some titles are indicative of structural elements in the music, others come from lines in poems. Both poetry and paintings have served as a form of inspiration for many works, wholly because they evoke a strong emotional feeling or a powerful image that gives an initial idea for the character of a piece.