David Horne

David Horne is a Professor in Composition and Head of Graduate School at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM), holding a Personal Chair since 2008. He combines composition, performance, and education through his roles as director of the HARP (Hub for Artistic Research in Performance), educator, and mentor.

• BMus (Curtis Institute of Music)
• PhD (Harvard University)

Research interests span contemporary classical composition, artistic research methodologies, 20th-century symphonic analysis, and interdisciplinary music-visual collaborations. His works like Brontë Songs and Castle Rock engage with literary and architectural themes respectively, while Different Ghosts explores spectral concepts through clarinet quintet.

Notable scientific awards include:

• BBC Young Musician of the Year 1988 (Piano Section)
• Funding from Vaughan Williams Foundation and Hinrichsen Foundation

As an advisor, Horne has supervised 18 doctoral students to completion, focusing on topics ranging from performer-composer-instrument relationships to cinematic techniques in musical composition. He is currently co-authoring a monograph Music in Contradiction with Dr. Simon Clarke (2024 publication).

HARP initiatives under his direction include international conferences and research lecture-recitals. He also serves as External Examiner for institutions including the Royal Academy of Music and Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.