Will Todd has been playing the piano since he was three and composing since he was seven years old. His output includes opera, musicals, oratorio, orchestral and religious works, and his music has been performed throughout the UK, in Europe and in the USA.
Notable works include the opera The Blackened Man which won second prize in the 2002 International Verdi Opera Competition, and was subsequently staged at the 2004 Buxton Festival; the oratorio Saint Cuthbert which has been performed many times and recorded by the Hallé Orchestra; music theatre work The Screams of Kitty Genovese, produced most recently at the New York Music Theater Festival;and the cantata The Burning Road -written to celebrate the 60 th anniversary of the Jarrow March. His jazz mass setting, Mass in Blue has been performed more than twenty times since its 2003 premiere, as well featuring on two commercial recordings - most recently by the Vasari Singers for Signum Records.
Recent performances include Among Angels - commissioned by the Genesis Foundation and premiered by The Sixteen in Salzburg in March 2006; Whirlwind - a major new opera for Streetwise Opera, premiered recently at The Sage Gateshead; and Sweetness and Badness - a opera for WNO Max which toured the UK in 2006. He is currently working on a new music theatre work with ROH2 and writing a clarinet concerto for the acclaimed clarinettist Emma Johnson. Future commissions include a requiem for soprano, choir and guitar.
November 2007