composer // lecturer // Guinness World Record Breaker
Tom Harrold has been writing music for two decades. His music is heard at concert halls, on stages and in television and radio programmes across the globe. He has amongst the most diverse portfolios on the music scene today: his latest works include music for Birmingham Royal Ballet, the BBC Proms and ITV’s “I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here”.
Tom’s music has been performed and commissioned by ensembles which include the BBC Symphony, BBC Scottish Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, Scottish Chamber and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestras at venues such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Albert Hall, Bridgewater Hall, Maison Symphonique de Montréal, Wigmore Hall and Cadogan Hall. In 2016 his orchestral piece Raze opened the Last Night of the Proms. He is one of the only composers to have a piece broadcast live simultaneously on BBC Radios 3 and 4. He broke a Guinness World Record in 2014.
Tom's music is heard in the concert hall as often as on TV, radio and stage. His music has been placed on commercial stations across the globe and domestically has been aired on BBC, ITV, C4, C5 and BBC World Service. He has an ongoing relationship with several sync, production and library companies.
Tom is a lecturer at Leeds Conservatoire, an Associate Member of the Royal Northern College of Music (his alma mater), and is in high demand as an educator.
"Harrold’s writing is precise and clean-textured, yet he imbues the work with a dazzling warmth and emotive density."
The Scotsman
"[Nightfires] is bold orchestral writing, confident enough to use the brightest of colours and the chunkiest of rhythms"
The Guardian
"thumpingly rhythmical"
The Financial Times
"...among the most exciting pieces I’ve heard from a Scottish composer in the last 25 years"
The Herald
"Raze had a pounding energy driving its low, insistent string fragments..."
The Guardian
"Raze proved a flamboyant curtain-raiser...boisterous, rhythmically intricate, played with winning enthusiasm"
The Standard