Mark-Anthony Turnage

Mark-Anthony Turnage (born 1960 in Corringham, Essex) is a British composer whose music combines post-tonal techniques with influences from jazz, blues and popular music, creating a distinctive voice that is both intellectually rigorous and viscerally immediate. He studied at the Royal College of Music under Oliver Knussen and John Lambert, and has held positions at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, English National Opera and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

His major works include the opera Greek (1988), based on Steven Berkoff's play; the opera Anna Nicole (2011), a tragicomic account of Anna Nicole Smith's life; the orchestral pieces Drowned Out (1993) and Texan Tenebrae (2002); and Blood on the Floor (1996), a work for jazz ensemble and orchestra. His music is known for its raw emotional directness, blues-inflected harmonic language and powerful rhythmic drive.

His ballet score for Christopher Wheeldon's Strapless (2016) was commissioned by The Royal Ballet and inspired by the story of American-born painter John Singer Sargent and his controversial portrait Madame X. The score's combination of period evocation and contemporary harmonic language perfectly matched Wheeldon's choreographic approach to the subject.