Dominic Wright
Application for the
BRASÍLIA ORCHESTRAL SUMMIT 2025
A Red, Red Rose
2024
For large ensemble - Duration: c. 8 mins
Inspired by the delicate yet powerful process of a flower blooming, A Red, Red Rose is a meditation on energy, transformation, and beauty. The piece takes its structure from the Fibonacci sequence, mirroring the natural patterns found in flowers and throughout the universe. Beginning from a single note, the music gradually unfolds into a radiant climax before gently fading away, reflecting the life cycle of a rose.
The work also explores spatial and harmonic movement, with instruments surrounding the audience to create an immersive experience. A fragment of the Scottish folk tune associated with Robert Burns’ poem A Red, Red Rose emerges in the latter half, adding a layer of tender emotion to the piece’s cosmic scope. At its heart, the music contemplates not just the fleeting beauty of a single blossom but the deeper, divine order underlying all of creation.
Recorded by students of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in Milton Court Concert Hall, conducted by Jack Sheen, April 2024.
The Cloud of Unknowing
2025
For solo horn and large ensemble - Duration: c. 11 mins
At the heart of The Cloud of Unknowing lies a reflection on identity—how we define ourselves and how that definition is shaped by the divine. Inspired by ancient philosophies of selfhood and their resonance in the modern world, the concerto explores the tension between what we know of ourselves and what remains beyond comprehension.
The solo horn serves as both a seeker and a voice from the unknown, moving through mist-like textures and moments of stark clarity. The ensemble shifts between solid ground and ethereal uncertainty, mirroring the struggle between personal identity and something greater than the self. Echoes of distant traditions and modern reflections intertwine, questioning whether identity is something we construct or revealed to us over time.
Dedicated to my good friend Henry Ward, Cloud of Unknowing is less an answer than an invitation—to embrace mystery, to find meaning in ambiguity, and to listen for the divine in the spaces between.
It is scheduled to be recorded on 11th March 2025 by students of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in Milton Court Concert Hall, with Darren Bloom Conducting and Henry Ward as soloist.
The recording submitted here is a midi mockup.
Dominic Wright
Short Bio
Dominic Wright is an award-winning neuro-diverse East-Yorkshire-born composer currently based in London. He studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, with teachers including Matthew Kaner and Sylvia Lim, where he holds a scholarship from the Guildhall School Trust.
Described as “beautiful” and “most haunting and effective” (Grammy award-winning composer Christopher Tin, 2021), his music has been heard across the UK and beyond. His music deals with the materiality of sound, often engaging rigorously with extra-musical ideas, particularly the intersection of music, ontology and the divine.
In 2024, he was selected as one of only eight composers to participate in the inaugural Cumnock Tryst International Composer’s School, where he received tuition from Sir James MacMillan and Oscar Bettison.
In 2021, he was the first-ever composer in residence for Hull Choral Union, which afforded him the opportunity to work with renowned poet and lyricist Ian McMillan.
He has worked closely with talented musicians such as Joanna Gill, Scott Lygate, Ben Smith, Mira Benjamin, Chris Brannick, Noël Tredinnick and Lydia Kenny.
As an arranger/copyist, he has been involved with projects for the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the HTB Orchestra and Chamber Choir (including the annual Leadership Conference at the Royal Albert Hall), and the Luxembourg Saxophone Association.
In addition to being an emerging composer, he is also an accomplished singer, having sung in the presence of their Majesties the King and Queen as a member of the newly formed vocal ensemble Voces Illuminae. He has previously been a member of the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain, London Philharmonic Choir and various church/cathedral choirs. He has sung under the baton of conductors such as Ed Gardener, Neville Creed, and Ben Parry.