Life and career

Mark-Anthony Turnage was born on June 10, 1960, in Corringham, Essex. He was the oldest of three children. His parents loved classical music and were active members of the Pentecostal Christian church.

He started composing music when he was nine years old. At fourteen, he began studying at the junior program of the Royal College of Music. His early music lessons were with Oliver Knussen, John Lambert, and later with Gunther Schuller. He was greatly influenced by jazz, especially the music of Miles Davis. He has written pieces that include jazz musicians such as John Scofield, Peter Erskine, John Patitucci, and Joe Lovano.

Turnage has written many orchestral and chamber music pieces, as well as three full-length operas. His opera Greek, created with the support of Hans Werner Henze, was first performed in 1988 at the Munich Biennale. It is based on a version of the story Oedipus Rex by Steven Berkoff. His opera The Silver Tassie, first performed in 2000, is based on a play by Seán O'Casey. Anna Nicole, with a libretto by Richard Thomas, was first performed in 2011. It tells the story of Anna Nicole Smith, a famous model and media personality. His opera Coraline, written for families, is based on a dark fantasy novel by Neil Gaiman. It was performed at the Barbican Theatre by The Royal Opera in 2018. His operas have been performed worldwide, including by New York City Opera (2013), Opernhaus Zurich (2019), Theater Dortmund (2013), Theater Freiburg (2018), and the Opera de Lille (2018).

Other works include Three Screaming Popes (inspired by paintings by Francis Bacon), Your Rockaby (a concerto for saxophone and orchestra), Yet Another Set To (a concerto for trombone and orchestra, dedicated to Christian Lindberg), and From the Wreckage (a concerto for trumpet and orchestra, written for Håkan Hardenberger). Blood on the Floor (1993–1996), for jazz quartet and large ensemble, has nine sections that all focus on drug addiction. One section, titled "Elegy for Andy," honors his brother, who died from a drug-related accident.

More recent works include the orchestral piece Remembering, conducted by Simon Rattle in 2017 with the London Symphony Orchestra and Berlin Philharmonic; the double violin concerto Shadow Walker, performed by Vadim Repin and Daniel Hope with the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra in 2018; and Testament (2018), a musical piece using Ukrainian words performed by a soprano and orchestra. He has also written song cycles for singers such as Sarah Connolly, Gerald Finley, and Allan Clayton.

Turnage's work Blood on the Floor was choreographed by Wayne McGregor for the Paris Opera Ballet in 2011. In the same year, he composed the score for Undance, working with McGregor and artist Mark Wallinger. In 2012, Trespass, a ballet choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon and Alistair Marriott, was first performed by The Royal Ballet. In 2017, he composed the score for Strapless, choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon for The Royal Ballet. Other choreographers who have created ballets using his music include Heinz Spoerli (Zurich Ballet, 2007; Staatsballet Berlin, 2012), Ashley Page (Rambert Dance Company, 2013), Jorma Elo (Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, 2007), and Gregor Zollig (Tanztheater Bielefeld, 2006).

Turnage was the first Radcliffe Composer in a partnership with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra from 1989 to 1993. From 2000 to 2003, he was the BBC Symphony Orchestra's first Associate Composer. He was Composer in Residence with the London Philharmonic Orchestra from 2005 to 2010. Between 2006 and 2010, he shared the co-composer-in-residence role with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra alongside Argentinian composer Osvaldo Golijov.

In autumn 2005, he was named a Research Fellow in Composition at the Royal College of Music. In 2015, he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his contributions to music.

Personal life

His partner is Rachael Hewer, the director who started the Virtual Opera Project (VOPERA) in 2020. In January 2025, Turnage was a participant on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs. He chose songs such as "Notre Dame des Jouets" by Oliver Knussen, "Blue in Green" by Miles Davis, and "Living for the City" by Stevie Wonder. During the program, he talked about helping at a food bank regularly and about working on music projects with people in prison.

Works

• From All Sides (2005–06)
• L'Anatomie De La Sensation (2011)
• Undance (2011)
• Trespass (2012)
• Strapless (2016, revised in 2017)