Resume & List of Works
Resume
If you need a photo for publicity or program books then please fell fee to download the photo
file below.
A short resume is available in Word and Pages formats.
file below.
A short resume is available in Word and Pages formats.
| Donald Fraser photo.jpg |
| df_short_resume_pages_doc.doc |
| df_short_resume_word_doc.doc |
Donald Fraser
Composer Conductor Recording Producer
British born, now a permanent US resident, British Academy Award winning Donald Fraser lives and works from his home outside of Chicago.
His studio is a converted barn.
Donald entered the Royal College of Music at age seventeen to study composing and conducting. His principal tutors were Sir Adrian Boult, Humphrey Searle and Alexander Goehr. He also studied with Nadia Boulanger. In his second year he was awarded all five composition prizes and a Cobbett Prize for conducting. At nineteen he began writing for film and television and, subsequently became resident composer at the Royal College of Art Film School and composer, conductor and Artistic Associate for the Old Vic Theatre Company. Donald has also created and produced TV, Film and Theatre programmes and many sound recordings for RCA, BMG, EMI, Philips, the BBC, Thames TV, PBS, Channel 4 and independent production companies. He has composed scores for over 30 documentaries, several feature films and TV series as well as more than 120 commercials, many radio dramas and music for the concert hall. Donald's music been heard at many of the world's major festivals including Edinburgh, Istanbul, Perth (Australia), Hong Kong as well as on theatrical tours to the United States, China, Japan and many European countries.
His music has been widely performed and recorded by, among others:
Artists:
Yehudi Menuhin, Jessye Norman, Sir Thomas Allen, Sir Andrew Davis, Maxim Vengarov, Andrew Litton, Sir Alexander Gibson, Peter Donohoe, Sarah Brightman, Eugenia Zuckerman, Anton Armstrong, Josephine Lee, Duain Wolfe, Grant Gershon, John Scott, Constance Chase, Lea Salonga, Daniel Rodriguez, Julie Covington, Jim Litton, Lionel Friend, Matthew Oltman and Robert DeCourmier.
Orchestras, Choirs and Ensembles:
Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, Sinfonia of London, National Orchestra of Mexico, Orchestra of St Luke’s, Colorado Symphony, National Philharmonic Orchestra, Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra, Hollywood Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Opera Orchestra, Augusta Symphony and Opera Company, the Prague Symphony Orchestra, the Shanghai, Chillingirian and Medici String Quartets, Canadian Brass, Atlantic Brass, ECO Brass, the American Boychoir, the New York Choral Society, Chicago Symphony Singers, the Choirs of St. Olaf’s College, West Point Glee Club, the Cheyenne Chamber Singers, Boston Gay Men’s Chorus, The Empire City Men’s Choir, Turtle Creek Men’s Chorus, the Chicago Gay Men’s Chorus, the Chicago Childrens’ Choir, the Choir of St. Paul’s Cathedral and literally more than a thousand church and community choirs around the world.
Film and TV:
(Films and TV with scores by Donald have received over 20 international awards).
Features, Documentaries and Series include:
The Woolcap: (Paramount Films/Viacom) Made for TV movie.
The Tenth Muse: starring Edward Fox (Berwick Universal Pictures/UK Channel 4/PBS broadcasts) -available
on DVD
Drop Out: (Cinecita Rome) Starring Vanessa Redgrave and Franco Nero. Hollywood Reel Award
Dream Weaver: (Independent Feature Film) Starring Dennis Waterman
Pass of Arms: (Hanna barber films/Island Records) Composer and Producer. Cork Film Festival Prizewinner
Locomotion: (British Transport Films)
Silver Medal, Moscow Film Festival and major international awards in Paris, Australia and Bulgaria
available on DVD from the British Film Institute (BFI)
This is Shell: (Shell Documentary Film Unit) - available on DVD rom the BFI
Paint: (Shell Documentary Film Unit) Nominated for a British Academy Award
Waiting for Armageddon: (Berwick Universal/BBC)
In Search of Eric Campbell: (Scottish TV)
Lone Star Hate: (Channel 4)
Howard Hawkes: (BBC 2)
In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwyn: (BBC)
Holocaust Remembered: (Channel 4)
The Photographer, His Wife and Her Lover!: (BBC) documentary on American photographer Winston O Link - available on DVD
Ever Thought of Sport: (Channel 4) TV series
Dogfood Dan :(BBC1) TV series
Skywatch: (Nato Films/CBS) TV series
Rock Follies: (Thames TV) TV series) co-creator British Academy Award
MUSIC and TV Specials:
A Christmas Symphony: Based on the Jessye Norman Christmastide CD, the symphony was made into a TV special by Thames Television and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in association with Philips Classics. Shown in over 40 countries. - CD and DVD are available.
CBS Sunday Morning Show: Documentary segment about the composer and his work. (CBS Network production)
The People’s Passion: Primetime Easter production. (BBC1, SVC Screen Entertainment and NVC Arts, Warner Brothers) starring jessye Norman, Sir Thomas Allen and Ron Moody. Available on DVD
I Never Saw Another Butterfly: (PBS) Also available on video, this production of settings of poems by the children of Terazin concentration camp, is a film of the concert given by the American Boychoir in Prague and their interaction with the survivors.
Stand Ye Steady: Filmed in the Cadet Chapel at the US Military Academy, Westpoint, starring Lea Salonga and Daniel Rodriguez with the USMA Glee Club choir. Broadcast on PBS and the Faith Channel. available on CD and DVD.
Peace and Love and Hope Abide: Aired on PBS and NPR, this was the annual Christmas performance by the Choirs and Orchestras of St. Olaf’s College. Available on CD and DVD
Musicals, Theatre, Opera and Music Theatre:
Scores for the Old Vic Theatre Company, Prospect theatre Company,English Chamber Theatre, Theatr Clwyd,
and London's West End including:
Private Lives: London, West End starring Dame Maggie Smith
Hamlet: Old Vic, starring Sir Derek Jacobi
Room With a View: West End, starring Dame Judi Dench and Sir Derek Jacobi.
Buster: Max Wall/Ian Lavender
Why Tears, Achilles?: Music Theatre
War Music: Music Theatre
Pilgrim: (Arranger and Orchestrator)
Aloha: (Arranger and Orchestrator)
Miss in Her Teens: (reconstruction of Opera by Dibdin)
Treasure Island: Musical
The Wind in the Willows: Musical
Concert Music includes:
Piano Quintet Elgar/Fraser - available on Avie Records
Water Colours
3 String Quartets
Violin Concerto
Sonata 1 for Piano, Harp and Percussion
A Christmas Symphony - available on Philips Classics
Missa Iona
Scrooge Overture
Songs to Sandburg
Chaya! (Concerto for 2 Harps and orchestra)
A Christmas Prelude and Fugue
Keltoi (Ballet)
Songs of the World
The Lamb/Agnus Dei
3 Chorale Nocturnes
Four English Lyrics
Sea Pictures (Elgar arranged Fraser) - available on Avie Records
Cu Chullainn (Song Cycle)
Airs and Graces
Ancient Chinese Lyrics
'Three' for chamber ensemble
Lagoon Music - available on Delos Records
Songs for String - available on Avie Records
Principal Publishers: Breitkopf and Hartel (London) Ltd.: Fentone Music Ltd.: Hinshaw Music Inc.
Principal Conducting Credits:
English Symphony Orchestra
English Chamber Orchestra
Scottish National Orchestra
Baroque Soloists of London
Italian Radio Symphony Orchestra
National Philharmonic
Old Vic Theatre Orchestra
Ballet Rambert
Illinois Chamber Symphony