Nigel Hess

Nigel Hess is a British composer best known for his television, theatre and film soundtracks, including the theme tunes to Wycliffe, Dangerfield, Hetty Wainthrop Investigates and Ladies in Lavender.

The Nigel Hess homepage is at www.myramusic.co.uk[[1]].

Nigel studied music at Cambridge University, where he was Music Director of the famous Footlights Revue Company. He has since worked extensively as a composer and conductor in television, theatre and film.

Nigel has composed numerous scores for both American and British television productions, including A Woman of Substance, Vanity Fair, Campion, Testament (Ivor Novello Award for Best TV Theme), Summer’s Lease (Television & Radio Industries Club Award for Best TV Theme), Titmuss Regained, Maigret, Classic Adventure, Dangerfield, Just William, Wycliffe (Royal Television Society Nomination for Best TV Theme), Hetty Wainthropp Investigates (Ivor Novello Award for Best TV Theme and Royal Television Society Nomination for Best TV Theme), Badger, Ballykissangel and Stick With Me Kid for Disney. Nigel’s most recent TV score was for BBC1’s New Tricks, while his latest feature film is Charles Dance’s directorial debut Ladies in Lavender starring Dame Judi Dench and Dame Maggie Smith. The score was performed by violinist Joshua Bell with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

While Nigel was House Composer for the Royal Shakespeare Company he contributed twenty scores for RSC productions, and highlights from his Shakespeare scores have recently been recorded and performed by the RPO in concert as The Food of Love, hosted by Dame Judi Dench and Patrick Stewart. Nigel was awarded the New York Drama Desk Award for ‘Outstanding Music in a Play’ for the productions of Much Ado About Nothing and Cyrano de Bergerac on Broadway. His most recent theatre score was for The Merry Wives of Windsor at Shakespeare’s Globe on the South Bank.

The debut album of Nigel’s vocal group Chameleon (recently reissued as Saylon Dola) won the Music Retailers Association Award for Best MOR Vocal Album, with tracks from the album subsequently covered by several artists, including tenor Russell Watson.

Nigel has also composed much concert music, particularly for symphonic wind band, with commissions from the Royal Air Force and the Band of the Coldstream Guards. July 2007 saw the première of Nigel’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, commissioned by HRH The Prince of Wales in memory of his grandmother. The soloist was internationally-renowned pianist Lang Lang. Other commissions for 2007 included a new ballet based on The Old Man of Lochnagar, a children’s story written by the Prince of Wales in 1980. This was premièred by the National Youth Ballet of Great Britain at Sadler’s Wells, London. Nigel’s Christmas Overture, commissioned by John Rutter, was premièred by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall in December.

Hess' notable television compositions include^[1]

• Testament (1988) — awarded the Ivor Novello Award for best television theme
• Summer's Lease (1989) — awarded the Television and Radio Industries Club award for best television theme
• Classic Adventure (1992) — awarded the Music from the Movies award for best BBC theme
• Wycliffe (1995) — nominated for the Royal Television Society best television theme
• Hetty Wainthropp Investigates (1997) — awarded the Ivor Novello Award for best television theme and nominated for the Royal Television Society best television theme award

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