Geoff Hannan

Who is Geoff Hannan?

Geoff Hannan is a British composer and musician born in London in 1972 to Irish parents. He studied composition privately with Michael Finnissy from 1987 to 1990 before reading Music at the University of Manchester. in 2006 he was awarded a PhD from Royal Holloway, University of London, where, with financial assistance from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, he studied composition with film composer Brian Lock.

He has attended a number of composition classes in mainland Europe with composers such as Harrison Birtwistle and Helmut Lachenmann, and participated in Brian Ferneyhough's composition course at Royaumont Abbey in 1994 and 1995. In 1998 he was joint winner of the Gaudeamus International Composers Award; in 2007 he was the recipient of the 5th Marenco International Composition Prize.

In 2008 he won a scholarship to study film composition at the National Film & Television School. His teachers there included Annabelle Pangborn and Peter Howell.

His music has been played by, among others, Ensemble Contrechamps, Ensemble Accroche Note, Tegenwind, Isabel Ettenauer, the Nieuw Ensemble, IXION, Noszferatu, the Ives Ensemble, CONTINUUM and the London Sinfonietta. His work has been played at the London Sinfonietta's State of the Nation, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the British Music Information Centre's 'Cutting Edge' series, and SOUNDINGS, a platform event organised by the Austrian Cultural Forum. The Ives Ensemble toured Bubblegum in 2003 and Work / Bonk in 2007.