Wise Music Creative Spotlights Composer Joby Talbot

Joby Talbot was born in London in 1971. He studied composition privately with Brian Elias at Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, before completing a Master of Music (Composition) at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama under Simon Bainbridge. 

Highlights among Talbot’s diverse catalogue include the narrative ballets Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (2011) and The Winter's Tale (2014), both collaborations with choreographer Christopher Wheeldon for The Royal Ballet and National Ballet of Canada that have since entered the repertory of companies worldwide.

Talbot's considerable experience writing for the screen includes BBC Two's cult classic comedy series The League of Gentlemen and feature films The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005), Son of Rambow (2007) Tracy Beaker for BBC, Sing (2016) and Sing 2 (2021) with director Garth Jennings; Franklyn (Gerald McMorrow, 2008) and Hunky Dory (Marc Evans, 2011), for which he developed orchestral arrangements of pop songs with young musicians, alongside writing the largely electronic score; and Closed Circuit (John Crowley, 2013). 

Talbot has twice been commissioned by the British Film Institute to re-score silent films The Lodger (1999) and The Dying Swan (2002) and his score to Carl Theodor Dreyer’s 1932 Vampyr was presented in 2018 for LA Opera’s Off Grand season at the Ace Hotel in Los Angeles.

To finish 2023, Talbot composed the score for 'Wonka' (2023) alongside Neil Hannon who wrote the original songs. Based on the extraordinary, iconic character at the centre of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, it's one of the best-selling children’s books of all time.

By September 2024, the celebrated partnership between Joby Talbot and choreographer Christopher Wheeldon will have spawned six contrasting and individual works for the stage. Fool’s Paradise, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, The Winter’s Tale, Tide Harmonic, Like Water for Chocolate and the brand-new Oscar for The Australian Ballet. Four of which are full length ballets commissioned by The Royal Ballet Covent Garden in partnership with The National Ballet of Canada and American Ballet Theatre.