Russell Hepplewhite, recently named one of the Evening Standard’s 1000 Most Influential People in London, has won critical acclaim for his ground-breaking operas for children including Shackleton’s Cat, Silver Electra, Borka the Goose with No Feathers and Laika the Spacedog, which recently was seen in a new production at Theater Fribourg in a co-production with the Comique in Paris. Laika, originally a new production with English Touring Opera, has also won two major awards at the prestigious Armel International Opera Festival and then toured to Avignon Opera. In the upcoming seasons, Laika will have another new production in Germany, and he will debut a large scale education production, Climat, for Opera National de Montpellier. Russell will be the Farnham Youth Choir composer in residence this season.
Outside of children’s opera, his choral music is published with Banks Music Publishing and he is the resident composer for Arcubus Ensemble. His music appears on CD releases for labels including Regent Records and has been featured on BBC Television and Radio, as well as being performed at venues including the Royal Albert Hall, the Wigmore Hall, the Library Theatre Luton, the Purcell Room and the Queen Elizabeth Hall. He has received numerous awards, including the PRSF David Bedford Award and two major prizes from the Armel International Opera Festival.
Recent highlights include a song-cycle entitled It was born of the Stars for Glyndebourne, Parallel, an Olympics-inspired musical commissioned by the Salisbury Playhouse, two melodramas for narrator and piano for the actor Timothy West, and several instrumental and choral pieces which have been performed in concert series’ and festivals, including the King’s Lynn Festival, European Opera Day, Denver Cathedral Concerts and Musiques à Pontorson in France.
Russell is currently collaborating with various ensembles and soloists, including Counterpoise, Svyati Duo, Contempo Ensemble, all of whom have commissioned pieces to be performed or recorded over the next year.
Russell is also active as a pianist, teaches Composition and Musicianship at the Royal College of Music Junior Department and is an examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. He was awarded a scholarship to study composition and piano at the Royal College of Music following previous studies at Chetham’s School of Music.
Margaret Levine
Phone: +44 7788 564195
Email: margaret@atholestill.co.uk
Representation: Worldwide
News | Russell Hepplewhite
News | Russell Hepplewhite
"The resulting show (of Moonfleet), with its music by Russell Hepplewhite, is a triumph."
The Fine Times Recorder
"The brand new score with swirling music by Russell Hepplewhite and tight intelligent lyrics by Gareth Machin drive the dramatic storytelling (of Moonfleet)."
Daily Echo
"Kanneh-Mason in Russell Hepplewhite’s The Death of Robin Hood, a curiously fanciful musing on the outlaw’s final moments, again thrillingly sung and with an inevitable twang on the cello string as parting shot. "
The Scotsman
"Russell Hepplewhite’s equally resonant The Death of Robin Hood, setting Victorian poet Eugene Field, and full of environmental imagery. Accompanied by Kanneh-Mason’s virtuosic cello part, the ensemble singing was a masterclass in perfect diction, with lovely step-out solos as well."
The Herald Scotland
"I also enjoyed Russell Hepplewhite’s The Death of Robin Hood, a theatrically paced and dramatically coloured narrative with an ever-changing line of energy for Kanneh-Mason’s cello."
The Arts Desk
"Next comes Kanneh-Mason in Russell Hepplewhite’s The Death of Robin Hood, an oddly imaginative take on the outlaw’s final moments, again rousingly sung and with an inevitable jingling of cello strings as a farewell shot."
UK Daily News
"★★★★★ The exciting, industrious score propelled the drama along like a favourable wind and
never overpowered the action or voices. An outstanding piece"
Opera Now
"★★★★ Russell Hepplewhite's music is not only atmospheric, but also allows the text to emerge
with crystal clarity."
The Times
"★★★★ Deftly done, and with highest musical standards"
The Observer
"★★★★ In this concert he was represented by The Everlasting Voices, settings of three of W B
Yeats' most lyrically expressive poems. The fluent rhythms of When you are Old captured the sense of passing time, while both this and A Drinking Song were characterised by gently
throbbing dissonances suggesting the poignancy of unfulfilled love. The more aspirational mood
of the third song, which gives its name to the set, was evoked with no less skill, ending on a note,
or rather chord, of eloquent ambiguity."
London Evening Standard
"The most exciting work on the programme was Russell Hepplewhite's Urban Abstract. In three movements it was dramatic, varied and well paced with a nice flow and a strong sense of harmony. It made the most powerful use of the whole ensemble."
bachtrack
"Hepplewhite's music, Antipodean-sunny and primary-coloured, carries the action happily. The
composer's real strength lies in his succulent orchestration for just four crack musicians."
WhatsOnStage
"★★★★ Russell Hepplewhite's lively score adds to the fun"
The Stage
"It's fun, fast-moving, and entertaining, but it also tells the serious and touching story of Laika brilliantly."
Opera Now
"An enjoyable and unabashedly tonal composition."
Fanfare
"★★★★ Hepplewhite never patronises the children with rumpty-tumpty Jack and Jill tunes, but instead gives them sinuous music of great sophistication, choosing instrumentation that embellishes the sense of wonder being created on stage."
The Guardian
