Christopher Gunning

Composer Christopher Gunning has written film and television scores that have been widely honored and frequently heard. He has also composed a large body of concert music, including a collection of symphonies.

Gunning was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, UK, on August 5, 1944. Aiming toward a career as a composer of concert music, he attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. His teachers there were <a href="spotify:artist:5KNv9Vn1TSzUzMp5ay2jPO">Edmund Rubbra</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:0x18ovS0dAzgGlZOWuc52W">Richard Rodney Bennett</a>, both composers of broad popular appeal. In the 1970s, Gunning collaborated with rock musician <a href="spotify:artist:27DCwiPx5ocQsf4K43SlIL">Colin Blunstone</a>, writing string arrangements for <a href="spotify:artist:27DCwiPx5ocQsf4K43SlIL">Blunstone</a>'s hit Say You Don't Mind (1972). Gunning's film and television career began at about the same time: he wrote scores for Goodbye Gemini (1970), Hands of the Ripper (1971), and Ooh... You Are Awful (1972). He was highly visible as the composer of most of the music for the Poirot films on British television, based on Agatha Christie's fictional detective; the film's signature theme, by Gunning, became especially familiar. Gunning has had a consistent film career from the 1970s through the present, with In Celebration (1975), The Rise and Fall of Idi Amin (1981), and Grace of Monaco (2014) among his credits. He has won eight BAFTA awards, including Best Film Music for his score to the 2007 film La Vie en Rose.

Gunning has maintained a parallel career as a composer of concert music, including concertos for saxophone (one of his most acclaimed works), oboe, and clarinet. He has written 12 symphonies, two of which, the Symphony No. 3 and Symphony No. 4, were issued on the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Chandos%22">Chandos</a> label, performed, along with Gunning's oboe concerto, by the <a href="spotify:artist:0MvSBMGRQJY3mRwIbJsqF1">Royal Philharmonic Orchestra</a>. <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Chandos%22">Chandos</a> also issued the album The Film and TV Music of Christopher Gunning, with the <a href="spotify:artist:2os8ZaeBvYxyVgTKrHtnvK">BBC Philharmonic</a> conducted by <a href="spotify:artist:0WXSfWdvqdhG76X1icKUVy">Rumon Gamba</a>. Most recordings of Gunning's music have been on the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Discovery+Music+%26+Vision%22">Discovery Music & Vision</a> and <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Albany%22">Albany</a> labels. Gunning has four daughters, one of whom, Chloe, is the creator of the British travel blog Wanderlustchloe.