Joby Talbot

English composer Joby Talbot made his Royal Ballet debut in 2006, with the score for Resident Choreographer Wayne McGregor’s Chroma. Talbot has since written three full-length ballet scores for the Company, in collaboration with Royal Ballet Artistic Associate Christopher Wheeldon: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (2011), the Company’s first full-length commission for more than twenty years, The Winter’s Tale (2014) and Like Water for Chocolate (2021). 

Joby Talbot was born in London in 1971. He studied composition privately with Brian Elias and at Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, before completing a Master of Music (Composition) at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama under Simon Bainbridge. 

Talbot’s diverse catalogue also includes small and large-scale choral and vocal works (The Wishing Tree, 2002; Path of Miracles, 2005; A Sheen of Dew on Flowers, 2019); orchestral pieces (Sneaker Wave, 2004; Chacony in G Minor, 2011; Worlds, Stars, Systems, Infinity, 2012, ); concerti (Desolation Wilderness for Alison Balsom , 2006; Ink Dark Moon for Milos Karadaglic, 2018); silent film scores (The Lodger, 1999; The Dying Swan, 2002; Vampyr, 2018) and feature film and television scores (The League of Gentlemen, 1999 - 2005; The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, 2005; Sing, 2016; Sing 2, 2021 and Wonka, 2023). 

Talbot’s critically acclaimed first opera, Everest, was given its premiere in 2015 by The Dallas Opera. His second opera based on the true story The Diving Bell and The Butterfly, a further collaboration with librettist Gene Sheer, premiered in November 2023. Oscar, Talbot’s fourth large scale collaboration with Christopher Wheeldon, commissioned by The Australian Ballet, will open in Melbourne in September 2024.