Conor Mitchell

Composition for Musicals - Winner 2004

Conor Mitchell is an Irish composer and writer. Although Musical Theatre is his passion CONOR MITCHELL has also composed symphonic and ensemble music as well as for film, theatre and dance. Years of writing incidental theatre music where the ‘theatre’ of the piece is intrinsically supported by the score, left a deep impression as is evident in his musical Have A Nice Life (Pleasance Theatre 2002). Utilising differing musical styles each character has their own compositional language which blend and collide, symbolising the connections made on stage. A desire to bridge the gap between musical theatre and opera was seen in Goblin Market, a twelve-tone opera which becomes a fully blown musical half way through. His own experience as a native Belfaster living in England has resulted in the development of a new project which, highly political and unconventional in nature, will, he hopes, push the boundaries of the art form and subvert the expectations of the whole genre.
His play, The Dummy Tree, was commissioned by the Royal National Theatre for their 2009 New Connections series and has been a great supporter of Youth Music Theatre: UK receiving several commissions from them including Missing Mel, Goblin Market and Eight. He is currently working on a new solo musical for Nigel Richards.