Paul Englishby

Award winning composer Paul Englishby is prolific and versatile, producing critically acclaimed scores for Film, Theatre, TV, Dance and the Concert Hall. He is best known for his Emmy Award winning jazz inflected music to David Hare's Page Eight, his beautiful orchestral score to the Oscar Nominated An Education, screenplay by Nick Hornby and directed by Lone Sherfig, and the thrillingly tense music for the BBC's Luther starring Idris Elba, as well as his many scores for the Royal Shakespeare Company with whom Paul is an Associate Artist. His recent work includes the big band arrangements for Stephen Polliakoff's explosive series Dancing on the Edge for BBC 2, the Stephen Daldry directed play The Audience, written by Peter Morgan and starring Helen Mirren, Good Cop a four part drama for the BBC, and the prime-time thriller Inside Men. Paul studied composition at both Goldsmiths' College and at The Royal Academy of Music where he received the coveted Charles Lucas Prize for composition. His broad concert repertoire includes Orchestral and Chamber works, Violin Concerto, String Quartet, an Oratorio, and pieces for community and school performance. Highlights of Paul's work in Opera and Dance are Pleasure's Progress and The Thief of Baghdad both for the Royal Opera House. As orchestrator, conductor and pianist, Paul has worked with some of the country's leading ensembles; London Symphony Orchestra, The London Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, London Musici, Tallis Chamber Choir, Fibonacci Sequence, BBC Concert Orchestra. Paul received back-to-back ASCAP Awards (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) for his scores to An Education and Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day directed by Bharat Nalluri which received critical acclaim for both the film and the soundtrack. Recent Theatre scores include Hedda Gabler starring Sheridan Smith and directed by Anna Mackmin at the Old Vic, the Royal Opera House's Les Grandes Bals De Legende, a ballet with Choreographer Will Tuckett which premiered at Buckingham Palace; as well as his sound-scape score for the terrifying Who is this that Comes? presented by Opera North. Paul's talent at successfully delivering a broad and exciting range of scores is also demonstrated in his previous film and television work, which includes Hamlet a movie adaptation of the RSC's hugely successful stage production starring David Tennant and Patrick Stewart; An Englishman in New York, starring John Hurt and directed by Richard Laxton; The Peep Show team's Magicians; Brit comedy Confetti, starring Martin Freeman and Jessica Stevenson for 20th Century Fox; and the film Ten Minutes Older featuring works from award winning directors Spike Lee, Werner Herzog, Bernado Bertolucci, Claire Denis, Mike Figgis, Jean Luc-Goddard and more. Paul's current projects include the third series of Luther and the forthcoming British musical film Sunshine on Leith directed by Dexter Fletcher. Coming up are the two follow up films to Page Eight featuring the jazz loving spy, Johnny Worricker, played by Bill Nighy, and Richard II with the RSC, continuing Paul's fruitful collaboration with Artistic Director Gregory Doran.