Joe Duddell

Joe Duddell has always divided his time & passion

equally between alternative and classical music.

Shortly after his band Pullover caught the eye of hip

label Fierce Panda, he went to study composition with

Steve Martland - the only composer to be exclusively

signed to Factory Records – at the Royal Academy of

Music.

Three BBC commissions Parrellel Lines, The Realside 

and Vaporise led to a publishing contract with Schott

Music in 2000, the first new composer to be signed in

over 16 years. After being youngest composer ever to

be commissioned to write for the BBC Proms in 2000,

Joe was commissioned again in 2003 to write Ruby, a

concerto for the percussionist Colin Currie, which was

immediately repeated at the 2004 BBC Young

Musician Of The Year. Joe went on to write 3 further

works specifically for Colin, including Snowblind, which

has toured Scotland, Europe and Canada, and Freaky

Dancer, which toured across the USA with the Los

Angeles Guitar Quartet.

Joe’s cello concerto Shadowplay for Thomas Carroll

and Sinfonia ViVA! which was also premiered in 2003

and repeated at the Lichfield Festival, where Joe was

composer-in-residence in 2003. He has since been

composer-in-residence at the Presteigne Festival,

which has also commissioned a number of works

including Mnemonic in 2004.

In 2009 Joe’s love of alternative music came back into

play when he was asked by Manchester International

Festival to orchestrate and conduct Elbow & The Hallé.

This now legendary collaboration at The Bridgewater

Hall received unprecedented critical acclaim across

the board. An immediate commission followed to

orchestrate songs for James & The BBC

Philharmonic at The MEN Arena in aid of the charity

Versus Cancer, which also featured Peter Hook from

Joy Division.

2010 will see Joe release his first CD of chamber

music. Current projects include a large-scale work in

conjunction with composer Craig Vear and an

extended orchestra collaboration with James. Joe

currently holds the position of Reader In Music at the

University of Salford.