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Welcome to Jocelyn Pook's website, music composer for film, television, theatre, dance & the concert platform.
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2010

On 7 May, Julio Medem’s new feature film Room in Rome (Habitación en Roma) was released to critical acclaim and was accompanied by a soundtrack album. Both feature an original score by Jocelyn Pook including two new works, the stunning Libera Me (featuring the voices of Lore Lixenberg, Natacha Atlas and Parvin Cox) and the satirical piece Women’s Magazine Tango (Melanie Pappenheim, Lore Lixenberg).  For more information, see: www.morenafilms.com 
 
On 18 June 2010, Ingerland, Jocelyn Pook’s first opera will premiere at the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Studio.
 
Ingerland is a big, raw, energetic exploration of the world of the football crowd. Directed by Tony Guilfoyle, with evocative video imagery by Dragan Aleksic, the cast includes Tannishtha Chatterjee, Mike Henry, Jonathan Williams, Olivia Chaney, Mikhail Karikis, Melanie Pappenheim, George Ikediashi, and Lore Lixenberg.
Ingerland will be part of a triple programme of short contemporary operas, commissioned and produced by ROH2, which are part of an exciting initiative to develop contemporary opera at the Royal Opera House through commissions from artists with established reputations in non-operatic fields. The other operas on the programme will be Shot Entanglement by Nitin Sawhney and A Ring A Lamp A Thing by Orlando Gough.
For more information and bookings , see: www.roh.org.uk

2009

2009 has been a busy year for Jocelyn Pook. She has completed work on three film projects, has devised and produced a radio programme based on the word Hallelujah, written a new work based on Handel’s ‘Sing, sing music was given’, has co-written two new works for the Black Arm Band’s dirtsong project which premiered at the Melbourne Festival, has received an ASCAP Award for her soundtrack for Brick Lane and is writing a new piece of contemporary opera that will premiere at the Linbury Studio at the Royal Opera House in 2010.

Awards

ASCAP award for Brick Lane
On Wednesday 14 October 2009, Jocelyn Pook’s score for ‘Brick Lane’ (the 2007 film directed by Sarah Gavron and based on Monica Ali’s award-winning novel) was honoured at the ASCAP/PRS awards ceremony as the most performed film soundtrack in the year 2008.

Film scores

Early in 2009, Jocelyn completed work on The People v Leo Frank, a 90-minute dramatic documentary exploring racism and religious persecution in Atlanta in the 1930s. Directed by Ben Loeterman, it is intended for broadcast in the USA on PBS.

Jocelyn also contributed to the soundtrack for SAM - a French road movie which features original music by John Parish (PJ Harvey’s collaborator) and Marie Modiano and was directed by Sebastien Lifshitz, with whom she collaborated on Wild Side in 2003.

Jocelyn also composed music for Julio Medem’s new feature film Room in Rome. Jocelyn last worked with Julio in 2007 when she produced a highly evocative soundtrack for Caotica Ana.

Radio

Earlier this year, Jocelyn was invited to create a BBC Radio 4 programme exploring the use of the word Hallelujah in music, which was aired on 7 April 2009. This ‘standout’ programme was presented by Jocelyn and featured a new work, written especially around the voices of Rabbinic scholar Jeremy Schonfield, Macedonian singer Tanja Tzarovska and long term collaborator, Melanie Pappenheim. The piece is available on iTunes.

pookography
about the composer
 
Biography

Jocelyn Pook is an award-winning composer who writes music for film, television, theatre, dance and the concert platform. Originally coming from a background of experimental theatre and dance, both as a performer with Impact Theatre Co-operative and Lumière and Son, and then as a composer with DV8 Physical Theatre and O Vertigo Danse, Jocelyn’s interest in this medium resurfaced when, in collaboration with visual artist Dragan Aleksic and director Graeme Miller, she created the music-theatre piece Speaking In Tunes, for which she received a British Composer Award in the multi-media category. Recent dance commissions include Phantasmaton for the Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company and Darshan Singh Bhuller’s Requiem for the Phoenix Dance Company. Jocelyn has also composed music for theatre productions such as Pete Brooks Insomniac, Bobby Baker’s productions of Box Story and How To Live, The Royal Shakespeare Company’s King John and most recently she composed music for the critically acclaimed National Theatre production of St Joan, starring Anne-Marie Duff, which won an Olivier Award for Best Music and Sound Design. Upcoming work in this area is Elemental - a large-scale site specific music theatre project written and directed by Patrick Barlow.

Established as a highly original composer of screen music, her score for Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut garnered a Chicago Film Award and a Golden Globe nomination. Other significant work in this area includes The Merchant of Venice (Dir: Michael Radford), with Al Pacino in the role of Shylock and a soundtrack released on Decca Classics which was nominated for a Classical Brit Award; the classic children’s story Heidi (Dir: Paul Marcus), starring Max von Sydow, Geraldine Chaplin and Diana Rigg and Brick Lane (Dir: Sarah Gavron) based on Monica Ali’s best selling novel. Jocelyn’s music was featured in Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York and she has also had much success with music for European films such as Caótica Ana (Dir: Julio Medem), Laurent Cantet’s Time Out (L’emploi du temps), Comment j’ai tué mon père (Dir: Anne Fontaine), La Repentie (Dir: Laetitia Masson) starring Isabelle Adjani and Wild Side (Dir: Sebastien Lifshitz) the soundtrack of which featured Antony Hegarty from Antony & The Johnsons.

Some of her many scores for TV include: Storm Over Everest (Dir: David Breashers) - a documentary about the fatal ascent of Everest by a group of climbers; Death On The Staircase (Dir: Jean-Xavier de Lestrade), an eight-part documentary about the trial of American writer Michael Peterson for the murder of his wife; the Royal Television Society nominated score to Granada’s The Butterfly Collectors; S4C’s Saints and Sinners, a six-part documentary series about the history of the papacy, shown in more than 20 countries; the major BBC2 10-part drama In A Land Of Plenty, which she co-wrote with Harvey Brough; The Sight (Dir: Paul Anderson) - a supernatural thriller starring Honor Blackman and the BAFTA nominated score for The Government Inspector (Dir: Peter Kosminsky) – the Channel 4 award-winning drama-documentary about the story of the late Dr. David Kelly and the events leading up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Jocelyn’s music has also been set to television commercials. Her work Blow the Wind / Pie Jesu, a setting of Kathleen Ferrier’s Blow the Wind Southerly against the contemporary voice of Melanie Pappenheim was used by Orange for their TV advertising campaign, and the work Masked Ball (from the CD Flood), was used as the soundtrack for an extraordinary Campari commercial. She was also commissioned to compose the music for two advertisements for US company ENRON which were directed by acclaimed music video director Tony Kaye, who is also known for the feature film American History X.

Since graduating from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1983, where she studied the viola, she has toured and recorded extensively with many leading names in rock, pop and contemporary music (both as a soloist and with her ensemble the Electra Strings) including Laurie Anderson, This Mortal Coil, Massive Attack, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Nick Cave, Lyle Lovett and Peter Gabriel. Her own group - The Jocelyn Pook Ensemble - includes singer and long-time collaborator Melanie Pappenheim, Iranian singer Parvin Cox, Sri Lankan vocalist Manickam Yogeswaran, and occasionally Natacha Atlas, with whom Jocelyn is currently collaborating on an album project. The Ensemble has presented performances of repertoire from Untold Things, Flood and music from her film scores, throughout the USA, Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Czech Republic and Slovenia. JPE’s most recent tour of the UK was via the Contemporary Music Network and they were also invited to perform at the spectacular opening week of Kings Place – the new venue in London’s King Cross. Chester Novello will publish a book of Jocelyn’s cello music to mark these performances.

With a blossoming reputation as a composer of electro-acoustic works and music for the concert platform, Jocelyn’s fascination with the human voice can be heard in most areas of her commissioned work. Her work Mobile was a commission from the BBC Proms and the Kings Singers and is a collaboration with the Poet Laureate Andrew Motion, Portraits in Absentia was commissioned by BBC Radio 3 and is a collage of sound, voice, music and words woven from the messages left on her answer phone over a period of three months and this was arranged for orchestra for the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra and given its first performance at the Dewan Filharmonik Petronas in Kuala Lumpar, under the direction of Kevin Field. Future projects include commissions for the BBC Concert Orchestra, the Hilliard Ensemble and counter-tenor Andreas Scholl and chamber orchestra.

For more information:
www.jocelynpook.com
www.serious.org.uk
www.chesternovello.com
www.musicsales.com/filmandtv
www.evolutionmusicpartners.com

Press quotes:

‘It is with this solo project (Deluge) that she shows her mettle as a composer of imagination and ingenuity.’ The Wire

With Blight, ‘Jocelyn Pook has sampled the thoughts of those evicted and combined them with the sounds of destruction to ingenious and powerful effect.’ Time Out

‘Pook is acquiring a cult following.’ The Independent

On Eyes Wide Shut:

‘Few directors are as involved and invested in the musical details of their films as was the late genius Stanley Kubrick...specially commissioned works that shine for their originality and eclecticism...minimalist, exotic, rich and soul-stirring.’ Billboard

‘Kubrick may have been her Pygmalion, but there's much more to Pook than that, so it's worth keeping your ears open.’ La Sicilia

'The heightened sense of menace reaches its climax with the intensely spooky music of Jocelyn Pook.' Boston Herald

'The film is enhanced by Jocelyn Pook's wonderful score.' NBC News

'A magical score by Jocelyn Pook.' The Hollywood Reporter

 

 

 

Awards & nominations

2 0 0 5
In May 2005 Jocelyn was nominated for a Classical Brit Award for the soundtrack of Michael Radford’s The Merchant of Venice in the category "Soundtrack Composer".

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At the first ever British Composer Awards in December 2003, Jocelyn Pook received the Multi-Media Award for Speaking in Tunes

2 0 0 0
Golden Globe nomination for Eyes Wide Shut
Chicago Film Critics Award for Eyes Wide Shut
ASCAP Award for Eyes Wide Shut

1 9 9 9
Royal Television Society Award nomination for Best Title Music for 'Butterfly Collectors'

1 9 9 7
D&AD (Designers and Art Directors Association) Silver Award for most outstanding use of music, for the Orange Advert
Gold Plaque Award from the Chicago International Film Festival for 'Blight'

1 9 9 4
Prix Italia for 'Strange Fish'
Mention Speciale for 'Mothers and Daughters' at the Grand Prix International Video-Danse

filmography
 
Currents

2005

Heidi
Director Paul Marcus
Starring Max von Sydow, Emma Bolger, Diana Rigg, Geraldin Chaplin, Robert Bathurst

2 0 04

The Merchant of Venice
Director Michael Redford
Starring Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons, Joesph Fiennes, Lynn Collins

2 0 04

Wild Side
Director Sebastien Lifshitz

 

 

Films

2 0 0 3

Gangs of New York
director Martin Scorsese
Jocelyn Pook contributed one piece: Dionysus

2 0 0 2

La Guerre à Paris
Director Yolande Zauberman
Hachette Premiere production co.

Addicted to the Stars
Director Mike Radford (part of a group of 10 minute film projects shown together as a feature called '10 minutes Older')

La Repentie
Director Laeticia Mason
Starring Isabelle Adjani
Producer Michelle Halberstadt, ARP production co.

2 0 0 1

L'Emploi du Temps (Time Out)
Director Laurent Cantet
Producer Caroline Benjo, Haut et Court production co. Winner of Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival

Reviews

Stanley Kubrick Documentary
A Life In Pictures
A film by Jan Harlan/edited by Melanie Viner Cuneo

2 0 0 0

Comment j'ai tué mon père
(How I killed my father)

Director Anne Fontaine
Producer Philip Carcassone, Cine B production co.

1 9 9 9

Eyes Wide Shut
Director Stanley Kubrick
Starring Tom Cruise & Nicole Kidman.
Produced by Jan Harlan, Hobby Films, Warner Brothers.
The music received a Golden Globe nomination as well as a Chicago Film Critic's Award and an ASCAP Award.

Reviews

Nasty Neighbours
Director Christine Alderson
Feature film, Ipso Facto production co.

1 9 9 6

Blight
Blight was made in collaboration with the film maker John Smith for the BBC series Sound On Film. It revolves around the building of the M11 Link Road in East London, which provoked a long and bitter campaign by local residents to protect their homes from demolition. The film is constructed from images and sounds of demolition and road building in conjunction with the spoken words of residents - the musical qualities of the speech fragments and natural sounds form the basis of the score.

Blight won 11 International Awards including "Best European Short Film" at the Cork International Film Festival 1997, and the "Gold Plaque" for Best Experimental Film at the Chicago International Film Festival, USA 1997

Reviews

 
 
Tv

 

2 0 05

The Government Inspector
Director Peter Kosminsky
Mark Rylance plays the role of Dr. David Kelly

2 0 04

Death on the Staircase (UK), aka The Staircase (USA), aka Soupcons (France)
Director François-Xavier de Lestrade

2 0 0 1

In a Land of Plenty
10-part BBC drama, co-written with Harvey Brough, Talkback Production Company.

Horizone
Short film for BBC 2 series Dance for the Camera. Choreographer Wayne McGregor, APT production co.
Director Gilly Lacey

2 0 0 0

The Sight
Director Paul Anderson
Producer Jeremy Bolt, Impact Production co
A paranormal-based US TV movie.

Enron advert
1st campaign of 'Why'

Breaking Hearts (My Khmer Heart)
Director Peter Kosminsky
Contributed one piece, Butterfly Song
United Productions

1 9 9 9

Butterfly Collectors
2-part TV drama starring Pete Postlethwaite for Granada TV. First shown 19 & 20/4/99. Nominated for a Royal Television Society Award for Best Title Music. Director Jean Stewart. Producer Simon Lewis

Red Chapters
6-part documentary series about the history of Communism made for S4C and produced by Opus TV Company. Co-written with Harvey Brough

Dancing Inside
First shown 22/7/99. A film made for the BBC 2 series TX about the 86 year old dancer/choreographer Jane Dudley, which experiments with a new form of choreography for TV using computer animation techniques. Director Gilly Lacey. APT Production co.

The Establishment
6-part documentary series for Channel 4
Director/photogragher Nick Danziger, producer Guy Davies, Hart Ryan Productions

1 9 9 8

Just Enough Distance
First shown 16/4/98. A film made for the BBC 2 series TX about the photographer Sharon Chazan who was tragically murdered by one of her subjects. Director Colin Spector
Produced by Double Exposure.

Lost Supper
TV documentary for Channel 4 about the question of restoring Leonardo Da VinciÕs Last Supper.
Director Colin Spector
Presented by Waldamar Januszczak and produced by his production company ZCZ films.

Trouble at the House
TV documentary for BBC 2 about Covent Garden Opera House. Director Colin Spector

1 9 9 7

Saints & Sinners
6-part documentary series about the history of the Papacy made for S4C.
Produced by Opus TV Company and broadcast in over 20 countries.

Half the People
Documentary about the Women's Movement made for the award-winning BBC series 'People's Century'

1 9 9 6

Orange Advert
WCRS advertising company, shown in UK and Belgium

1 9 9 5

Keats' Last Journey
Documentary for BBC Omnibus series presented by Andrew Motion and directed by James Runcie

1 9 9 4

Strange Fish
Full length film based on the DV8 Physical Theatre show, originally made for BBC TV and directed by David Hinton. Music won the Prix Italia

The Alien
4-minute TV Opera for BBC series Mad About Music directed by Colin Spector

Mothers And Daughters
Dance film by choreographer Victoria Marks and director Margaret Williams
MJW Productions
Music won a Mention Speciale at the Grand Prix International Video-Danse 1994

discography
 
Currents

2004

The Merchant of Venice
Music by Jocelyn Pook
Decca 475 6367

2004

Wild Side
musique originale de Jocelyn Pook
Naive NV 801611

2004

Unknown Public 15
Dancing / Listening:
Voice Games

 

 

Archives

S O L O    A L B U M S

2 0 0 1

Untold Things - Jocelyn Pook
RealWorld Records
CDRW93
7243-8-50781-2-5

Reviews

1 9 9 9

Flood - Jocelyn Pook
Virgin Records
7243-8-48150-2-8

Reviews

1 9 9 7

Deluge - Jocelyn Pook
Virgin Records
CDVE 933-7243-8-42963-2

Reviews

F I L M   S O U N D T R A C K S

2 0 0 3

Gangs of New York - Dionysus
Miramax/Interscope 06949 35652


2 0 0 1

L'Emploi du Temps
musique originale de Jocelyn Pook
Virgin France
7243-8115612-4

Reviews

1 9 9 9

Music from the motion
picture Eyes Wide Shut
Naval Officer, The Dream, Masked Ball, Migrations
Warner Sunset/Reprise
9362-47450-2

Reviews

C O M P I L A T I O N S

2 0 0 1

Chillout Moods: Magic Forest
Masked Ball
Disky Records
DSK64611-2

1 9 9 8

The Most Relaxing Classical Album In The World...Ever
Blow the Wind:Pie Jesu
EMI

1 9 9 7

Invocation : Oppenheimer
Island Records, USA
314-524 441-2

1 9 9 7

New Pure Moods
Blow the Wind: Pie Jesu
Virgin

1 9 9 7

Wings of a Dove - Anthony Way
Blow the Wind: Pie Jesu
Decca Records
455 645-2

1 9 9 7

Unknown Public 09 All seeing ear: Tango with Corrugated Iron

1 9 9 6

Century XXI UK
Oppenheimer
Felmay CGD East West SpA
Warners Italy
129806751 2

1 9 9 6

Unknown Public 05 Voicebox
Blow the Wind: Pie Jesu

1 9 9 6

The No. 1 Classical Album
Blow the Wind: Pie Jesu
Decca Records
456 195-2

C O L L A B O R A T I O N S    &   
S T R I N G   A R R A N G E M E N T S

2 0 0 3

Something Dangerous
Natacha Atlas
Adam's Lullaby
MANTRA

2 0 0 0

OVO The Millennium Show
Peter Gabriel - Low Light, The Time of the Turning, The Weaver's Reel, Downside Up, The Nest that Sailed the Sky
Real World Records RWPGO1

1 9 9 9

Liquid Sunshine - Keziah Jones: Hello Heavenly, Runaway,Teardrops Will Fall Delabel

1 9 9 7

Friday the Thirteenth
The Stranglers
Waltz in Black,Valley of the Birds, Daddy's Riding the Range,Golden Brown, No More Heroes
Eagle Records
EAGCD006

1 9 9 3

Jam Nation - Way Down Buffalo Hell - Sleeping , She Moved Through The Fair
Real World Records
CDRW 36

1 9 9 3

Jam Nation - Plus from Us
Real World Records
CDRW 33

 
performance

'...a dizzying diversity of styles and musics ... Pook's ensemble features virtuoso vocalists from Iran and Sri Lanka, a master of the Arabian qanun (a relative of the zither), synthesisers, samplers and string quintet .....'
Tom Service, The Guardian

The Jocelyn Pook Ensemble's repertoire features music from her Real World album 'Untold Things', as well as selections from some of her film and television scores, including 'Eyes Wide Shut', 'L'emploi du temps' and 'In a land of plenty'.

Many of the concerts have incorporated a strong visual element, more recently provided by the artist Dragan Aleksic. For the 1999 concert in Venice, Dragan created 'Tides', a unique video installation which involved multi-layered video projections of edited footage combined with live transmission (from the square outside the theatre) of a burning wax life cast of the composer. For the 2001 CMN tour, Dragan created another video installation, 'Memory of a Passerby', which deals with the complexity and beauty of the transitory nature of things.

Regular members of the ensemble include Harvey Brough (psaltery/keyboards/voice), Melanie Pappenheim (mezzo soprano), Parvin Cox (Persian voice), Manickam Yogeswaran (South Indian singer) Jacqueline Norrie (violin), Sally Herbert (violin), Kelly McCusker (violin/voice), Sophie Harris (cello) and Jon Banks (qanun).


F U T U R E     P E R F O R M A N C E S

2 0 0 7 - 2 0 0 8 performances to be confirmed.

 

P R E V I O U S     P E R F O R M A N C E S

2 0 0 5

The Jocelyn Pook Ensemble performed two concerts in Spain at the end of October.

Sunday 29th October, 8 p.m.
Palacio de Congresos, Alicante.
Av. Denia, 47-A, 03013 Alicante
Tel: +34 965 26 99 62
http://www.palaciocongresosalicante.com
 
Tuesday 31st October 8 p.m.
Eduardo del Pueyo Concert Hall, Zaragoza
Vía Hispanidad, 22, Zaragoza.
Tel: +34 91 524 54 00
http://teatrodelazarzuela.mcu.es/

The ensemble line-up includes Harvey Brough (psaltery, keyboards, voice), Melanie Pappenheim (mezzo soprano), Manikam Yogeswaran (South Indian voice), Kelly McCusker (violin/voice), Sally Herbert (violin), Laura Moody (cello), Jon Banks (qanun).

2 0 0 5

The Jocelyn Pook Ensemble
Monday 10th October
Linhart Hall, Cankarjev Dom
Ljubljana, Slovenia

The Jocelyn Pook Ensemble with special guest Natacha Atlas

Wednesday 6th April
Djanogly Theatre
Lakeside Arts Centre, Nottingham
www.lakesidearts.org.uk

Thursday 14th April
St Georges, Bristol
www.stgeorgesbristol.co.uk


Sunday 17th April
Turner Sims Concert Hall
University of Southampton
www.soton.ac.uk/~turnsims/

Wednesday 20th April
Santa Cecilia, Rome, Italy
www.freeformjazz.it
www.santacecilia.it/scw/index.jsp

Monday 30th May
Coventry Jazz Festival
Warwick Arts Centre
www.jazz.visitcoventry.co.uk
www.warwickartscentre.co.uk

Saturday 4th June
Salisbury Festival
The Playhouse Salisbury

Tuesday 19th July
Festival de la Cote d'Opale
Wimereux, Boulogne, France

2 0 0 4

8th July
St. George's
Bristol, UK

9th July
Exeter Festival, Exeter Cathedral
Exeter, UK

24th July
Era New Horizons Film Festival
Cieszyn, Poland

25th July
Uherske Hradiste Film Festival
Czech Republic

18th September
The Thames Festival 2004
River Thames (by the Oxo Tower Wharf)
London, UK

 

2 0 0 3

13th July
Alte Feuerwache
Kšln, Germany

18th November
Aula Magna, La Sapienza
Roma, Italy

19th November
Chiesa di S Severo in Pendino
Naples, Italy

20th November
Time Zones Festival
Palazzo Corso Sonnino
Bari, Italy

2 0 0 2

6th November
La Base
Bordeaux, France

2 0 0 1


Fabrik
Hamburg, Germany

CONTEMPORARY MUSIC NETWORK
UK TOUR

9th March
Corn Exchange
Cambridge

10th March
Warwick Arts Centre
Coventry

11th March
Gardner Arts Centre
Brighton

13th March
Turner Sims Concert Hall
Southampton

15th March
Queen Elizabeth Hall
London

17th March
Brewery Arts Centre
Kendal

2 0 0 0


Teatro Paolo Grossi
Milan, Italy

1 9 9 9


Winter Gardens/WNYC Radio
World Trade Center
New York, USA

20th November
International Multi-media Festival
Venice, Italy

18th July
Catania Festival
Sicily, Italy

25th June
Islington Festival
London, UK

1 9 9 8

Islington Festival
London, UK

4th June
Salisbury Festival
Salisbury, UK

1 9 9 7

Sallis Benny Theatre
Brighton, UK

1 9 9 6

28th September
Unknown Public Holiday QEH
London, UK

 
buy CD, links & contacts
 
Buy CDS

Untold Things
RealWorld Records 2001

Flood
Virgin Records 1999

Deluge
Virgin Records 1997

Wild Side
Naive 2004

Dancing / Listening Unknown Public 15 contains 'Voice Games' 2003

 

 

Links

http://www.serious.org.uk

http://www.realworldrecords.com/catalogue

http://www.chesternovello.com/composer

http://www.unknownpublic.com/access

 
 
Contacts

 

Please email us at: Martel.Ollerenshaw@serious.org.uk