Gareth Price

Gareth Price - Composer

Gareth Price was born in Cardiff, South Wales. He studied classical guitar and composition at the Royal Welsh Conservatoire graduating with a degree in music. He started composing in his teens and his first musical, written for children aged from 4 to 8 years old, was performed when he was still only seventeen.
During his student years Gareth wrote incidental music for Drama department productions as well as further instrumental music and musicals. After graduating he moved into teaching where he continued composing, producing over 15 musicals for schools along with cantatas, chamber works, songs and pieces for all kinds of ensembles.

Much of his early work consisted of music for schools but he also wrote a vast catalogue of other compositions including “The Old Lie” - an entertainment based on poems from the First World War, performed as the first part of an evening with Liverpool poet Roger McGough. Also from this era came a commission to write a musical to celebrate the 700^th anniversary of Rye in East Sussex being granted a Royal Charter and becoming one of the Cinque Ports. Other work from this time included a commission from virtuoso clarinettist Georgina Dobrée for a set of pieces for Basset Horn which she subsequently performed around the world.

In the early 1990s Gareth met and started working with Bernard J Taylor initially working on songs for solo albums of West End singers. Soon this led to arranging and orchestration of many of Bernard’s musicals, including Pride and Prejudice - which has been staged many times around the world, and Wuthering Heights - with performances by the Romanian State Opera and also staged in Germany.

During this period as well as recording with West End singers, notably the then Phantom and Christine from the London production of Phantom of the Opera, Peter Karrie and Claire Moore, he also travelled, along with Bernard J Taylor, to Poland to record the symphonic Millennium Suite with the Polish State Philharmonic.

Later that year he was principal orchestrator on the CD of the musical “Nosferatu”, which again featured many West End stars, later he was also the musical director of the successful European Premiere run starring Christopher Biggins and Peter Straker.

A few years later was a trip to Iasi in Romania, with a Dutch production company, to record and conduct the Passion Suite with the orchestra of the Romanian State Opera. Following this was post-production at the Philips recording studios in Eindhoven.

Gareth is currently working on orchestrations for a new musical to be performed on Broadway and is putting the finishing touches to his new “Friendship Mass” which is due to be debuted in 2027.