Welcome to the website of Graeme Hopson - Composer

Born in Middlesbrough in 1980, Graeme Hopson began composing from the age of 12. His music soon attracted local attention, and he was winner of the Saltburn Music Festival Young Composers’ Class 1995 – 1997. In 1996 he was a finalist in the St. Mary’s Young Composer of the Year Competition, and in 1999 two of his pieces were performed at the Royal Festival Hall, London, as part of the National Music for Youth Festival, and broadcast on BBC Radio Cleveland. He was a finalist in the Ensemble 11 international Young Composers’ Competition 2002. Since graduating from the University of Huddersfield in 2002 with first class honours, Graeme has been studying composition at the RNCM under Paul Patterson.

Graeme is a passionate advocate of music education and has participated in and devised several education projects involving children and adults, and people with disabilities and learning difficulties. Projects include Organworks 2002 and the Hallé Family Concert Series, both at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, and the SPNM’s award winning Sound Inventors Project, working with children as an assistant composer to develop their own compositions.

Awards Graeme has won include the Truscott Prize (2003), Soroptomist International Society of Manchester Prize (2003). He has received funding from the North of England Musical Tournament Trust and the Sidney Perry Foundation, for which he is sincerely grateful.