…delicately Stravinskian, Tim Coker’s ‘Walking not Driving’ will surely go on to become a classic Birmingham Post
Tim’s first major success came in 2004 with his music theatre work Walking not Driving winning critical acclaim during its national tour, directed by John Fulljames. Since then Tim has written extensively for both theatre and concert platforms including recently The Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, The York Mystery Plays, Edinburgh Fringe Festival and recorder ensemble Fontanella.
Other recent works include incidental music for Molière’s L’Avare written for period instrument ensemble Passacaglia with virtuoso recorder player Dan Laurin, and a sonata for piano and recorder performed by Robin Bigwood and Annabel Knight. His choral work My Soul There is a Countrie commissioned by Finchley Chamber Choir featured on ITV’s Artworks programme and his large-scale music theatre piece based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest combining live and recorded sound formed a centrepiece in Tim’s PhD.
Tim has a 1st class degree from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire where he studied composition with John Joubert and with Royal Shakespeare Company Director of Music, John Woolf. He then began post-graduate studies at Manchester University with John Casken, where he was awarded a Ralph Vaughan Williams Trust Scholarship. He later studied with John Woolrich and Simon Holt at Royal Holloway, University of London and in 2007, completed his doctorate entitled Dramma Per Musica – Towards a New Music-Theatre.
As composer, Tim has featured at a number of festivals including Cheltenham, Lichfield, Buxton, Newbury and Huddersfield and his music can be heard regularly in concert both in the UK and abroad.
His music has been performed by some of the world’s leading ensembles including the Lindsay String Quartet, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, the New Music Players, The Opera Group, the Composer’s Ensemble, Orkest de Volharding and the BBC Singers. His most recent work for Fontanella, Wild Wood is available on their new CD The Nightingale’s Response.
Tim is a Trustee of the Bloomsbury Festival, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, an Offie-nominated theatre director, Artistic Director and teacher.
