Toby Young, composer

Who or what are the most significant influences on your musical life and career as a composer?

I’ve always been really interested in music and art that goes between genres and plays with our expectations. When I was young I played a lot of jazz piano and then became really inspired to find composers like Leonard Bernstein and (more recently) Wynton Marsalis who brought jazz into orchestral writing. More recently I’ve enjoyed working on projects that blur the boundaries between classical music and theatre or film, and even electronic dance music.

What have been the greatest challenges of your career so far?

Every piece presents its own new challenge, but I’ve found working in theatre to be particularly exciting and complex! Having to coordinate so many different creative ideas with a whole host of technical and practical constraints is like a massive sudoku puzzle, where you get to challenge your brain to solve the problem in the most engaging and imaginative way. It’s endlessly complex and messy and emotional work, which is probably why it’s so much fun! Certainly the reward of the final show when everything comes together makes any stress worthwhile.

What are the special challenges/pleasures of working on a commissioned piece?

Different composers react differently to constraint, but I personally love the challenge of tailoring a piece of work to a certain group or commissioner. For me, music is very much about being able to tell a story or help someone see the world differently, through different eyes, and working with someone to communicate their ideas or worldview with an audience is a huge privilege.

How do you work?

This depends on the type of project (classical, theatre/film, etc) but I nearly always try and work in two parts: the first one being really playful, gathering ideas and material and exploring all the different colours and ideas, and the second one crafting all the details – like a furniture maker meticulously sanding down all the rough edges. I often write with a mixture of manuscript paper and the computer and synths in my studio, which keeps the process fresh and never lets me sink too far into habits!

What advice would you give to young/aspiring composers?

There’s lots of talk in advice guides about ‘finding your voice’ and deciding what music you want to make and sticking to that. I’m not sure this is actually that helpful! Each project has its own challenges and opportunities, and you can only find what makes you happy as an artist by experimenting and exploring how you respond to each individual challenge. The sooner you limit yourself to what you think you *should* be doing, the less chance you’ll discover something incredible and exciting that you never knew you could (or wanted to) do.

What do you feel needs to be done to grow classical music’s audiences?

In many ways I think this question – which comes up a lot! – isn’t actually the right question question to ask. There are plenty of people who listen to classical music in films and television, and maybe also put on a ‘music for relaxing’ or ‘music to study to’ playlist’ but perhaps wouldn’t choose, say, to go to buy tickets to orchestral concerts. For me, the questions we should be asking are how to make live classical music feel more accessible and match the spectacle of other genres like pop music.

Tell us more about the work which has been nominated for an Ivors Classical Award this year?

It Takes a City was a ‘modern opera’ (part opera, part musical) about a family living in Coventry, and was part of the Coventry City of Culture festival. It was scored for professional soloists and orchestra together with over 2000 young people making up an amazing chorus, who performed the world premiere at the Royal Albert Hall. Not just amazing for the participants but amazing at all in the current artistic and financial landscape. Together with the wonderful writer Sayan Kent, we told a story developed through interviews and workshops with a wide cross section of the midlands. It told a story that we heard repeated to us over and over again from participants: a message of family and community coming together despite the appalling injustices we are currently facing in modern Britain. This was resoundingly the message of not just the composition but the performance too, to seek the power of human connection when so many elements of our society try to break those bonds and push as apart.

What do you enjoy doing most?

Cooking, going to the theatre, DIY, and time with my dog Ralph!

Toby Young is nominated for an Ivors Classical Award in the Best Community and Participation Composition category for ‘It Takes A City. The Awards ceremony takes place on 14th November at BFI Southbank.

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