BMus (First-Class, Cardiff University)

Mst (Brasenose College, University of Oxford)

PhD (Downing College, University of Cambridge)

David John Roche is a composer from Tredegar in South Wales. His music is direct, determined, loud, and strongly influenced by heavy metal, lush orchestral music, and his working-class Welsh background. He has been marked out as a “clear-minded and class-conscious artist” (Culture Matters) and “one of the most energetic, driven, and successful of Wales’s millennial generation of composers” (Tŷ Cerdd). David’s work has been described as “a glorious confusion of rock and film music […] irresistible” (Stephen Walsh, The Arts Desk), “exquisite” (Adam Walton, BBC Introducing Wales), praised for its “ingenious scoring” (Bernard Hughes, The Arts Desk), and complimented for “bravely” using “unusually specific melodic material in an excitingly direct way, with passages of intense expressive power” (Thomas Adès). His compositions have been broadcast, televised, and written about internationally to millions of people.​ He has been nominated for over 50 academic and professional awards.

A string of international performances and commissions form the backbone of David’s work: BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, La Filharmonie, Zhejiang Symphony Orchestra, Brazilian National Orchestra, Tanglewood Music Center, Psappha Ensemble, Sinfonia Cymru, Britten Sinfonia, and the Solem Quartet, among others – his work is regularly and repeatedly funded, commissioned, and published through national and international creative partners.

David grew up in Tredegar, South Wales. He spent much of his youth playing in rock and metal bands as an electric guitarist – something that, to this day, strongly informs his music. He studied at the universities of Cardiff, Oxford, and Cambridge (winning numerous prizes and awards). Following the completion of his doctorate, he spent several years studying with John Metcalf MBE, beginning his work as a freelance composer.

Courses delivered by David include:-

Creative Musical Composition: A Modern Introduction for Beginners in the Field (XK11010)

Introduction to Orchestration

Extreme Music