Adrian Sutton (born 1967) is a British composer, best known for his theatre music. He composed the scores for a series of well received National Theatre productions, including War Horse (2007) and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (2011). In September 2022 Sutton was diagnosed with incurable cancer.[1]
Sutton was born in Kent in 1967 but his family then moved to Zimbabwe and later South Africa, where he grew up. Returning to London he studied music at Goldsmiths.[2] Before his success at the National Theatre Sutton spent 15 years as a composer of "applied music", especially music for television commercials.[1] He also composed the score for Ken Russell's 1995 film Treasure Island. But after working with radio presenter Chris Morris on the music for his BBC Radio Blue Jam series (1997-99)[3] Sutton was introduced to his brother, the theatre director Tom Morris. That led to a commission from the National Theatre in 2005 to write the score for Helen Edmundson's "play with music" Coram Boy, for which Sutton adapted and extended the music of Handel.[4]
The score for War Horse two years later is interspersed with simple folk songs on which Sutton collaborated with John Tams.[5] The instrumental sections draw on his interest in English music of the early and mid twentieth century (especially Bax, Finzi and Walton).[6][7] (Sutton's music wasn't used for the subsequent film directed by Steven Spielberg). The Curious Incident score of 2011 was influenced by another enthusiasm - the electronic studio music of Mike Oldfield and Aphex Twin.[1]
Other scores for the National Theatre included Nation and The Revenger's Tragedy (both 2009), Husbands And Sons (D. H. Lawrence, adapted by Ben Power, 2015), Rules for Living (2015), and Angels in America (2018). For other theatres Sutton provided music for Cyrano de Bergerac (Bristol Old Vic, 2019), Dr. Semmelweis (Bristol Old Vic, 2022, adapting Schubert) and Murder On The Orient Express (Chichester, 2022).
Since his diagnosis, Sutton has worked exclusively on concert works.[8] In June 2023 his Violin Concerto (2023) and other orchestral pieces, including an extended suite for orchestra constructed from the War Horse score, were performed live at the Southbank Centre with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, soloist Fenella Humphreys,[9] and subsequently recorded by Chandos Records.[10]