Graham Lynch was born on the 7th October 1957. He studied piano from an early age, and as a teenager he played in rock and jazz rock bands. It was an interest in composition that took him to study music, first in Bath, then at Kings College London, which included a year at the Royal College of Music, where he completed a PhD. He also studied with Oliver Knussen.

 

Since leaving university Lynch has chosen to live in more remote locations within the UK, firstly in the West Highlands of Scotland, and then in Cornwall. This geographical separation from the mainstream of contemporary classical music has allowed his very personal and distinctive style to slowly develop.

 

Lynch has always maintained a keen interest in many different musical styles, especially tango and flamenco. He first began composing tango nuevo pieces in 2003 when an opportunity came to work with the London ensemble Tango Volcano. Since that time he has composed and arranged many different tango works for small ensembles, right up to orchestra. In 2007 he worked with the BBC Concert Orchestra on a programme for BBC Radio 3 where he was represented as the “living composer” part of a “History of Tango” broadcast, the featured work of his being Milonga Azure.

 

The emergence of Lynch‘s more individual musical language has been matched by an increasing interest in his compositions, which have now been taken up by leading orchestras and ensembles in over thirty countries. This has lead to commissions, recordings and broadcasts, from a wide range of groups, including the BBC Symphony Orchestra (Invisible Cities), BBC National Orchestra of Wales (Stars in a High Wind), BBC Singers (Graphic of the Petenera) and Sophie Yates (Admiring Yoro Waterfall), as well as the Orchestra of Opera North, Evelyn Glennie, Onyx Brass, Las Sombras, El Ultimo Tango, and many others.

 

Alongside his musical interests, his fascination with the visual and literary arts has had a considerable influence on the way he writes. Increasingly his classical and tango pieces synthesize elements from each style, and have a common theme in their exploration of melodic beauty, clarity of ideas, and innovative structures.