FRANK MOON

Raised in Cornwall, Frank trained at Birmingham Conservatoire, graduating with several composition awards and prizes. As a student Frank had begun collaborating with theatre practitioners, and in the few years that followed he produced scores for many plays. During this time in Birmingham, Frank also secured a lecturing post at Coventry University, teaching composition, performance, analysis and 20th Century music. 

Eventually leaving the lecturing post to work as a freelance performer and composer, Frank's skills as a guitar and oud (Arabic lute) player and his passion for music of all cultures led him to work in a multitude of genres. Equally at home in folk, jazz, classical, gypsy swing, Balkan punk, African funk, Indian fusion, Cuban salsa, hip-hop, free improvisation, pop or mediaeval choirs, Frank has toured internationally with many ensembles and continues to draw on these multifarious influences in his compositions. 

Frank's work as a composer includes many theatre and dance commissions, and an encounter with renowned choreographer Arthur Pita in 2010 was the beginning of a long standing collaboration. Frank's scores for Pita include two orchestral ballets - The Wind (Royal Ballet) and Salome (San Francisco Ballet); live scores for The Tenant (Joyce Theater New York), The Metamorphosis (Royal Opera House, winner of an Olivier award, a Sky Arts South Bank Award and the Critic's Circle National Dance Award), The Little Match Girl (Jerwood DanceEast / Sadler's Wells), The World's Greatest Show (Royal Opera House), Facada (Segerstrom Centre, CA; Stanislavsky Theatre, Moscow; London Coliseum), Run Mary Run (Sadler's Wells / world tour), Utopia (International Dance Festival Birmingham), plus sound design work on Stepmother/Stepfather (UK tour), La Bala (Brazillian tour), and Volver Volver (London Colliseum).  Scores for theatre and dance include The Little Prince (Protein), The Welcoming Party (Theatre Rites / Manchester International Festival), Philip Pullman's I Was A Rat (Birmingham Rep), The BFG (Birmingham Rep),  HAG (The Wrong Crowd; Edinburgh Festival / tour), and Barney Norris's award winning play Visitors (Up In Arms, UK tour). Short film scores include three commissions from English National Ballet - An Evening with Taglioni, Curing Albrecht and The Last Resort, plus several independant shorts.

As a performer Frank has toured widely in the USA, Canada and Europe, and has been a regular performer with artists such as The Urban Folk Quartet, Cerys Matthews, The Destroyers, Mediaeval Baebes, Trio Manouche, Bev Lee Harling, Steve Tromans, Mark Lockett's Loop Orchestra, Del Camino, Jahman Sillah's Jaantabi and many more, as well as leading his own Desert Groove Band and various jazz groups. In 2009 Frank formed The Urban Folk Quartet with Joe Broughton, Paloma Trigas and Tom Chapman, and after winning an international competition in Spain on only their 4th gig, went on to release 4 albums and tour widely across Europe and Canada. Frank has performed at venues such as the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, The Royal Opera House, City Centre New York, Joyce Theater (New York), Segerstrom Centre (California), Stanislavski Musical Theatre (Moscow), Womad Festival, Glastonbury Festival, and many other leading festivals across Europe.

In 2014 Frank was nominated for a Paul Hamlyn Foundation Composers Award, and in 2021 he recieved a nomination in the Critics Circle National Dance Awards for Outstanding Creative Contribution.

"The remarkably versatile Frank Moon, whose magic touch keeps the evening buoyant."
The Stage

"Like Django Reinhardt lost in the souk" 
Simon Jones, fRoots

"Very fleet of finger"
Sean Rafferty, BBC Radio 3