Born in Gloucestershire 1983, Gavin Higgins grew up in the Forest of Dean. Surrounded by a family of ‘banders’ it was not long before he began to play in the local brass band. In 1999, Gavin was awarded a place to study at the prestigious Chethams School of Music in Manchester where he began lessons in French horn and composition and in 2001 was given a scholarship to study at the Royal Northern College of Music with Gary Carpenter, Frank Lloyd and Pete Francombe. Gavin has had music performed by various ensembles and soloists across the UK in numerous venues including the Wigmore Hall and the Royal Albert Hall and is regularly commissioned to write new works. His ‘Alarms’ for solo trumpet and ‘Road Works’ for percussion has proven very popular with BBC Young Musician finalists and are regularly played in the competition. Other commissions Gavin has received include a fanfare which formed part of the Commonwealth Games celebrations in Manchester 2002, ‘A Forest Symphony’ as part of the Voices in the Forest Festival and ‘Three Broken Love Songs’ for Mark Simpson the clarinettist and winner of BBC Young Musician of the Year2006. Gavin is also an active orchestrator and arranger for both screen and stage recently working on the score to the Paramount Movies picture, ‘Arctic Tale’ and the Joby Talbot Ballet, ‘The Dying Swan’, which was performed September 2007 at Sadlers Wells. Gavin has recently become the composer-in-residence for the famous Tredegar Band and is currently a student at the Royal College of Music, studying composition with Ken Hesketh. Gavin is an RCM scholar and is supported by the AHRC and Douglas and Hilda Simmonds Awards.
Hear some of his musical output at www.myspace.com/gavinhiggins
