News and Press

On Tuesday 27 June a very special artist comes to Cadogan Hall; in Hollywood circles a living legend, a man whose music has been recognised above the work of fellow composer-greats John Williams, Hans Zimmer and Ennio Morricone. In 2000 he walked onto the stage at no less an occasion than the Academy Awards to receive the Oscar for Best Original Score for the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, an achievement made doubly significant by the fact that the other film scores shortlisted that year included Gladiator, Chocolat and The Patriot.

When I last saw Danny Driver, I was seventeen, and he was teaching me composition at London’s Junior Academy of Music. Now he’s a world famous pianist. “I was always slightly mystified as to why I was teaching composition, given that I was never really a composer”, he laughs, when we speak again after a gap of fifteen years. “I guess it was because I’ve always had a fascination with musical structure”.

Ahead of our feast of orchestral and choral works with composer Eric Whitacre on Wednesday 31 May at the Royal Albert Hall, journalist Hannah Nepil uncovers the Grammy Award-winner's musical style and preparations for his new work.

Skyping from his Los Angeles home at some ungodly hour in the morning, Eric Whitacre immediately turns his smooth charm on full beam. “Why don’t you start by telling me about you?” he says, flashing his Colgate smile. It takes a while to bring the composer-conductor round to the more pressing topic: his upcoming gala performance, conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.