David P. Graham

Born in Stratford-upon-Avon on 22 January 1951; David P. Graham, in full David Paul Graham, is a British composer. He wrote his first compositions as music teacher at a girls’ boarding school for its house ensembles; he then studied music at the University of Reading and took part in Hans Werner Henze’s master class in Cologne. For three years he taught at the music school in Montepulciano, he was composer in residence at university courses in Spain and Berlin, and he served several times on the organising committee of the Festival Internacional de Musica Contemporanea in Camagüey, Cuba. In 1986 he was appointed to the Clara-Schumann-Musikschule Düsseldorf to build up a composition class for children, which he directed for three decades. He has written operas, among them “Tre Opere per Burattini”, song cycles, chamber music, numerous works for the Henze-Kammerensemble and for accordion, as well as music for theatre, radio plays and films by Volker Schlöndorff and Bill Douglas; premieres have taken place at the Almeida Festival and the Munich Biennale, among others. The music for the audiobook Martin Baltscheit: Vom Mädchen das nicht schlafen wollte (2006), nominated for the Deutscher Hörbuchpreis 2007, was written by the children of his composition class under his direction.