Tarik Hamilton O'Regan (born 1 January 1978) is a British and American composer. His compositions are partially represented on numerous recordings which have been recognised with two Grammy nominations. He is also the recipient of two British Composer Awards. O'Regan has served on the Faculties of Columbia University as a Fulbright Chester Schirmer Fellow, The Radcliffe Institute of Harvard University as a Radcliffe Fellow, Yale University, Trinity College in the University of Cambridge, Rutgers University, Stanford University as a Visiting Artist, and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton as Director's Visitor. O'Regan's compositions incorporate the influence of Renaissance vocal writing, the music of North Africa, British rock bands of the 1960s and 1970s, jazz and Minimalist music. His music is often rhythmically complex and employs varying approaches to tonality.

Life and work

1978–2001: Beginnings, early education, and influences

Tarik O'Regan was born in London in 1978. He grew up predominantly in Croydon in South London, to an English father of Irish descent and an Algerian mother, spending some of his early childhood in Algeria and Morocco, the latter where his mother was born. He was educated at Whitgift School then Pembroke College, Oxford, where he studied music and, in 1997, he received his first commissions from the Choir of New College, Oxford (conducted by Edward Higginbottom) and James Bowman. During this time, he studied composition privately with Jeremy Dale Roberts. Following completion of his undergraduate studies in 1999, he began serving as the classical recordings reviewer for The Observer newspaper, a position he held until 2003. At the same time he also worked for JPMorgan Chase, the investment bank. He completed his postgraduate studies under the direction of Robin Holloway at Cambridge, where he was appointed Composer in Residence at Corpus Christi College in 2000 and formally began his career as a composer, with his first published works appearing in 2001 on the Finnish Sulasol imprint.

2002–2011: Early compositional career

2002 marked two important London premieres: those of Clichés with the London Sinfonietta and The Pure Good of Theory with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. In 2004, O'Regan moved to New York City to take up the Chester Schirmer Fulbright Fellowship at Columbia University and subsequently a Radcliffe Institute Fellowship at Harvard. During this period, his composition Sainte won the Vocal category of the 2005 British Composer Awards and his debut disc, VOICES was released on the Collegium label. Beginning in 2007, O'Regan began dividing his time between the UK and the US when he was appointed Fellow Commoner in the Creative Arts at Trinity College, Cambridge, a position he held until 2009. During his tenure at Cambridge, his composition Threshold of Night won the Liturgical category of the 2007 British Composer Awards and Scattered Rhymes, his first CD on the Harmonia Mundi label, performed by the Orlando Consort and the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir conducted by Paul Hillier, was released in 2008. O'Regan's second disc on the Harmonia Mundi label, Threshold of Night, appeared in late 2008 and awakened a wider interest in his work, demonstrated by the CD garnering two GRAMMY Award nominations in 2009: Best Classical Album and Best Choral Performance. After this, he increased his output as a music commentator in print and on air, especially on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4. This aspect of his career broadened with the broadcasting in 2010 on BBC Radio 4 of Composing New York, a documentary written and presented by O'Regan. In the same year, he was appointed to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton as a Director's Visitor and made his BBC Proms debut with Latent Manifest performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. O'Regan's third album on the Harmonia Mundi label, Acallam na Senórach: an Irish Colloquy (based on the 12th century Middle Irish narrative of the same name) was released in October 2011.

2011–2022: Major stage works - Heart of Darkness, Mata Hari, and The Phoenix

In 2011, Heart of Darkness, O'Regan's chamber opera in one act, with an English-language libretto by artist Tom Phillips, based on the novella of the same name by Joseph Conrad was premiered at the Linbury Theatre of the Royal Opera House. The idea for the opera first came to O'Regan in 2001. It received wide critical attention and marked his first foray into operatic writing. A suite for orchestra and narrator was extrapolated from the opera and was given its London premiere by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and actor Samuel West in April 2013. In May 2015, Heart of Darkness received its North American premiere in a production by Opera Parallèle, presented by Z Space in San Francisco, California. O'Regan's first full-length ballet score (Mata Hari, based on the life of Margaretha Zelle MacLeod), commissioned by the Dutch National Ballet with choreography by Ted Brandsen, opened on 6 February 2016 in Amsterdam. On 30 September 2016 Mata Hari was released in DVD and Blu-ray formats by EuroArts, distributed by Warner Classics; the ballet will be revived for a further run in October, 2017. In February 2017, O'Regan's first album of orchestral music, A Celestial Map of the Sky, performed by The Hallé under the direction of Sir Mark Elder and Jamie Phillips, was released on the NMC label. The album entered the British Official Charts at number seven in the Specialist Classical Chart and number 18 in the Classical Artist Albums Chart. In the same year he was elected both to an Honorary Fellowship of Pembroke College, Oxford, and to the board of Yaddo. In 2019, O'Regan's opera The Phoenix with a libretto by John Caird was premiered at the Houston Grand Opera. The story was derived from the life of Mozart’s librettist, Lorenzo Da Ponte. Patrick Summers conducted the opera with Thomas Hampson and Luca Pisaroni playing Da Ponte at different stages of his life. The designs were by David Farley with lighting by Michael Clarke and choreography by Tim Claydon. He was subsequently appointed Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra's first-ever Composer-in-Residence from the 2021/2022 season onward. From 2011 to 2022, O'Regan composed several pieces influenced by his North African heritage, which included his first collaborations with both the Dutch National Ballet and the Australian Chamber Orchestra, which would eventually culminate in a triptych of orchestral works: Raï (2011), Chaâbi (2012) and Trances (2022). His output also began to form the focus of festivals such as the 2014 Vale of Glamorgan Festival and New Music for New Age from The Washington Chorus.

2023-present: The Coronation of Charles III and the Yaddo Artist Medal

In 2023, O'Regan was one of five composers asked to write a new piece for the coronation service of Charles III and Camilla in Westminster Abbey. The king commissioned O’Regan having heard his music at Lincoln Cathedral in 2006. His setting of the Agnus Dei, Coronation Agnus Dei, was performed during the Eucharist. O'Regan said of the piece, "I wanted to explore influences from my own varied heritages within the context of the Agnus Dei in the British choral tradition: a unison melody is slowly fragmented to create myriad timbres, much as one might hear in some Arab or Irish traditional music. This melodic shifting is also reminiscent of 'phase music', strongly connected with San Francisco, where I wrote this work. Finally, there is an alternating verse anthem structure: a nod to Orlando Gibbons, who became Organist of Westminster Abbey exactly 400 years ago." In June, 2024 O'Regan was announced as a recipient of the Yaddo Artist Medal, which "recognizes individuals who exemplify a level of achievement and commitment to their art that reflects the tradition of excellence that has always been a hallmark of the Yaddo residency program, as well as celebrating those who have been supportive and understand the sense of community that it has long promoted among artists."

Music

Style

O'Regan's music is mostly written in tonal, extended-tonal and modal languages (or a combination of all three), often with complicated rhythmic effects and dense textural variation.

Influences

In various radio and print interviews, O'Regan has stated that he "came to music quite late", mentioning the age of 13 as when he first was able to read music, and has listed five primary influences on his work: An article in The Irish Times on 23 November 2010 suggested that O'Regan is also interested in his Irish heritage. Published on the occasion of the first performance of Acallam na Senórach (a setting of The Middle Irish narrative of the same name), the article stated that Sir William Rowan Hamilton is a direct ancestor of O'Regan (his great-great-great-grandfather), whose middle name is Hamilton.

Critical reception

Publications and works list

Tarik O'Regan's earliest works were published by Oxford University Press and Sulasol; since 2004 his music has been exclusively published by Novello & Company, part of the Wise Music Group.

Stage

Orchestra

Orchestra with soloist

Orchestra with chorus

Chamber ensemble

Chamber ensemble with chorus

Chorus

Solo instrumental

Solo voice

Electroacoustic

Discography

Filmography

Awards and recognition