Sam Paechter Curriculum Vitae



Sam Paechter is an experienced and versatile 
composer who has been writing music professionally 
for over ten years. 

Westminster Abbey, Opera North, The Bridgewater 
Hall, Harrogate International Festival and Major Road 
Theatre have all commissioned him. 

His musical scope is wide-ranging and his work 
encompasses music for screen, opera, theatre and 
music-theatre. 

An accomplished orchestrator, his concert music 
includes pieces for orchestra, big-band, wind band, 
choir, massed pianos, massed saxophones, and 
klezmer, folk and jazz ensembles.

OPERA

March 2001
Random Acts Music Theatre

The Landau Papers

Librettist & Director: Rachel Feldberg
Conductor: Quentin Clare
11 solo voices, 2 violins, viola, ‘cello, flute/piccolo, oboe, clarinet/bass clarinet, horn, trombone, glockenspiel, xylophone, drum kit.
A chamber opera set in Berlin in the 1930s, based on the life of Jewish musicologist, Anneliese Landau.
A Year of the Artist residency.
Duration: 1hr 55min.

Jan 1998
Interplay Theatre

Mad Meg

Libretto: Mike Kenny
Director: Jenny Sealey
A chamber opera scored for 3 voices, ’cello and harmonium with violin, drums and sampler.
Tour of special schools and arts venues.
Duration: 1hr 5min.

SCREEN

May 2003
Jonathan Ashworth

Synchronicities

Director: Jonathan Ashworth
Sound design & music.
Oboe & harp
Short film about a walk on an Edinburgh rooftop
Duration: 8 min

May 2002
Fittings Multimedia Arts

I Feel Like I’m Fixing To Fly

Director: Gary Robson;
Designer: Felicity Shillingford;
Choreographer/Dancer: Sarah Johnson
Multi-layered sounds of actual pole-vaults, and sampler.
A soundtrack for a short film about pole-vaulting for the Manchester Commonwealth Games.
Duration: 8 min.

Nov. 2000
Anglia Television

Who’s Sleeping?

Director: David Collins
Multi-tracked violin
A short film about people who are awake while others sleep.

Director: Ashley Barnes
Violin, Clarinet, Flute, Harmonium, Voices
Performed throughout the Edinburgh Festival
Incidental music.

April 1999
Full Body and the Voice

Off Limits

Director: John Palmer
Huddersfield based professional learning-disabled theatre company with 'cello, sampler, tape and percussion.
Incidental music.

April 1997
West Yorkshire Playhouse

How High is Up?

Writer: Brendan Murray
Director: Gail McIntyre
5 performers. Voices, harmonium, percussion, clay ocarinas and delay box.
Primary schools tour.
Incidental music.

Jan 1997
Interplay Theatre

Stepping Stones

Writer: Mike Kenny
Directors: Jenny Sealey & Jon Palmer
Designer: Lisa Ducie
3 actors, 1 musician. Kora, harps, marimba, voices, saxophone, bagpipes, whistles, singing bowls, percussion.
Tour of special schools and arts venues.
Incidental music.
Winner of the Writers’ Guild Best Children’s Play award 1997 and The Arts Council's Children's Award 2000.

April 1996
Opera North/Otley Community Play Association

The Heart Shaped Field

Writer: Phil Smith
Director: Rachel Feldberg
Designer: Dominie Hooper
Large choir, orchestra and hand bells.
A large scale community work celebrating the life of this small Yorkshire town.
Music duration: 1hr

Sept 1995
Interplay Theatre

Sea Changes

Directors: Jon Palmer & Jenny Sealey
Designer: Mad Millar
5 performers. Voices, flugelhorn, tuned percussion and other instruments built into the set.
A radical reworking of Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
Tour of special schools and arts venues.
Incidental music.

Sept 1994
Major Road Theatre

An Everyday Apocalypse

Writer: Martin Riley
Director: Al Dix
4 actor / singers, 19 piece orchestra and small choir.
A large scale theatre piece commemorating the First World War.
Music duration: 35min.

April '94
Westminster Abbey

Good Friday Music

Brass and percussion ensemble.
Processional music accompanying Jesus’ road to the cross.
Music duration: 30min.

Sept '92
Horse and Bamboo Theatre

The Flood

Writer & Director: Bob Frith
2 musicians playing a large variety of instruments.
Puppet theatre with music throughout.
Tour of community venues.
Duration: 55min.

Dec 2002
Royal Northern College of Music

Pulsar

11 pianos (66 hands), Organ, Harpsichord (4 hands), Celesta, Harmonium, 9 Melodicas
An enormous piece charting the life of a pulsar. Written for the RNCM’s Keyboard Focus Day, 2003
Duration: 15 min.

Dec 2002
Kinder Childrens’ Choir

The Hare

Choir and Piano
Setting of a poems by Kevin Crossley-Holland
Duration: 3 min.

Sept 2002
Wakefield Voices

Spring, Summer, Winter

Choir and String Quartet
Settings of poems by Thomas Moore, William Shakespeare, and Rupert Brooke
Duration: 13 min.

Mar. 2002
Wyndham Wind Band

Wilson’s Farewell

Wind Band
A piece to commemorate the retirement of Wyndham School’s head teacher and baritone saxophonist, John Wilson.
Duration: 4 ½ min.

Sept. 2001

Words: Judy Gahagan
Contralto/Soprano and Orchestra
Three songs written for the mezzo-soprano Lucy Stevens.
Chosen for Opera North’s National New Composers’ Forum 2002.
Duration: 17min.

The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester Sept 2000
Saxophony 2000 (Composer / Artistic Director)

Ringing Down / Saxophonix

Choreographer: Emily Burns
Designer: Felicity Shillingford
40 saxophones, percussion.
A large work with integral dance performed in, around and above Barbirolli Square in Manchester; preceded by an hour-long procession of dancers, saxophonists and percussionists.
Duration of Ringing Down: 13min.

May 1995
Opera North/ Bradford Festival

Look at Me

Lyrics: Al Dix
Photography: Lizzie Coombes
Choir, ’cello, and clarinet.
The choir sing about their lives in Bradford while, synchronised with the music, multiple images are projected onto the screens behind.
Performed at the Pictureville Cinema, Bradford.
Duration: 35min.

March 1995
Harrogate International Festival

A Causeway for Hookstone Wood

Small wind ensemble, percussion, voices.
Music to celebrate the opening of Jamie McCulloch’s living causeway at Hookstone Wood, near Harrogate.
Duration: 11min.

EDUCATION:

City of Leeds College of Music
Graduate Diploma in Jazz and Contemporary Music

Bretton Hall College
PGCE in Music & Mathematics (secondary)

Royal Northern College of Music
Awarded the Sellers Award for post-graduate study with Paul Patterson.