Graham Fitkin

The music of Graham Fitkin, often for one or more pianos, is performed by his own Graham Fitkin Group, by the piano-and-harp duo FitkinWall, and by other musicians. His music is tonal and has been classed as minimalist or postminimalist, but he also lists modernists such as Pierre Boulez and jazz and rock musicians among his influences. He was one of 20 composers chosen to participate in the “New Music 20x12” project as part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. His music has been widely recorded, including by the Sacconi Quartet on the 2024 album Graham Fitkin: Loosening. Fitkin was born on April 19, 1963, in Crows-an-Wra in Britain’s West Cornwall region. His mother was a piano teacher, and by age eight, he was not only playing the piano but composing at the keyboard and performing in local ensembles. Fitkin attended the University of Nottingham from 1981 to 1984, studying composition with Nigel Osborne, among others. He traveled to the Netherlands for studies at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague with Louis Andriessen. Returning to Britain, he lived in London for several years but then returned to Cornwall, where he has continued to live with his wife, harpist Ruth Wall. The two perform together as FitkinWall, and Fitkin has formed several other groups, including the four-pianist, two-keyboard Nanquidno Group in 1985 and the Graham Fitkin Group in 1996. One of Fitkin’s earliest works to be recorded was 1985′s Ostrich on the Plain for oboe and wood blocks (in 2002 by oboist Paul Goodey). Many of his works, however, are for piano or for multiple pianos. He wrote several works for the group Piano Circus and has recorded with that group; one of those, Line for six pianos (1990), has been recorded multiple times. He often performs his own piano music, generally with single-word titles. Fitkin has also written chamber music — including six string quartets — and orchestral works and concertos, including a recorder concerto (2017). His cello concerto for Yo-Yo Ma was premiered in 2011 at the BBC Proms. He has written several works for pianist Kathryn Stott. Most of Fitkin’s works have been for conventional instruments, but he has written several electronic pieces; his album Kaplan was inspired by the character of Kaplan in Alfred Hitchcock’s film North by Northwest. By the mid-2020s, more than 60 of his works had been recorded, including several on the album Graham Fitkin: Loosening by the Sacconi Quartet in 2024. That album featured works for string quartet with one or two added instruments. ~ James Manheim