DIRK CAMPBELL
Composer and ethnic instrument
specialist
Click on a picture below for instrumental performances and information. Each picture takes you through to a class of instrument which I have played in film, TV and album recordings and in concert, and you can listen to the sounds.
PERFORMANCE CREDITS:
FILMS INCLUDE
Aladdin
The Mummy
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
TV INCLUDES
The State
Indian Summers
The Virgin Queen
THEATRE INCLUDES
Hamlet (RSC)
Julius Caesar (RSC)
Morte d'Arthur (RSC)
BIOGRAPHY
I was born in 1950 in the British military hospital in Ismailia, Egypt, and lived in Kenya till 1962, so was exposed to indigenous Arab and African music before its acculturation by western influence. In my teens I studied Stravinsky and formed the progressive rock band Egg in 1968 with Dave Stewart and Clive Brooks. In 1972 I studied composition at the Royal College of Music, gaining an ARCM diploma in 1974. I composed the score to David Anderson's BAFTA-winning animated film Dreamland Express in 1983 and began a full-time career as composer in 1989 with film and commercials commissions from Redwing Films. I've since written scores for film, television, advertising, radio and stage. I've also acquired specialist skills on a wide range of ethnic folk instruments which have led to recording work in film, television and computer games. I created two instrumental sound libraries distributed by ILIO Entertainments, World Winds and Origins. My solo CD Music from a Round Tower was released in 1996 and Music From a Walled Garden in 2010. I lecture on music in remote antiquity, and ways of incorporating non-western music into contemporary composition.
Martina Dolcimascolo 2020
Blanche McIntyre 2007
Stuart Urban 2006
Magali Charrier 2006
Ovidio Salazar 2004
Iraj Emami 2003
A SENSE OF GRAVITY
David Anderson 2002
Mark Warner 2001
David Anderson 2000
David Anderson 1995
DOOR
David Anderson 1991
David Anderson 1991
David Anderson 1983
Fulcrum TV 2006
OR Media 2002
HAJJ JOURNEY OF A LIFETIME BBC2 2001
C4 2001
BBC 2 2000
BBC1 1999
BAILEYS IRISH CREAM
Creative Circle Bronze
DANEPAK
CO-OPERATIVE BANK
Cannes Silver Lion
K CIDER
Independent Cinemas Award 'Best Music'
WORLD WILDLIFE FUND
VAX
BRITVIC ORANGE JUICE
LUCOZADE
VITTEL
LANDROVER
OPEL
EUROSTAR
HYUNDAI
KWIKFIT EURO
GOLDFISH
PONDS
PURDEYS
COMFORT
RONSEAL
GLASGOW HERALD
SANYO DIGITAL
ELECTRICITY COUNCIL
LILT
PTT
BANK OF BOSTON
MULLER YOGHURT
BRITISH HOME STORES
PILLSBURY DOUGH
RICE KRISPIES
OCEAN SPRAY
LG ELECTRONICS
ZONE MUSIC History Zone, Pleasure Zone, Fun Zone, Drone Zone
PRODUCTION MUSIC ON LINE Medieval, Travel, Percussion, Tudor, Middle East, Japan
SOUND STAGE Ireland, Eastern Mediterranean
MUSIC HOUSE Travel
BRUTON World Journeys, Eastern European Journeys, Early History, Middle East
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CHAPPELL Meditation, War
Solo albums
Music from a Round Tower
Music from a Round Tower
Voiceprint 1996
Music from a Walled Garden
Music from a Walled Garden
Burning Shed 2010
PERFORMANCE CREDITS
Some of my session and theatre work is listed below. To read comments by some of the composers shown, see here.
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2021 Cosmic Rhapsody RPO (comp. Manu Martin) duduk
2019 Aladdin (Disney, dir. Guy Ritchie, comp. Alan Menken) duduk, kaval
2017 The State (Channel 4, dir. Peter Kosminsky, comp. Debbie Wiseman) duduk
2017 The Mummy (Universal, dir. Alex Kurtzman, comp. Brian Tyler) duduk, kaval zurna, mijwiz, arghul, bansuri
2017 Horizon Zero Dawn (Sony, comp. Joris de Man) fujara, filimbi, kaval
2016 Queen of Katwe (dir. Mira Nair, comp. Alex Heffes) bansuri, kaval
2016 Hamlet (RSC, dir. Simon Godwin, comp. Sola Akingbola) tambin, nyatiti, bansuri, kaval
2014/15 Indian Summers (Channel 4, dir. Anand Tucker, comp. Stephen Warbeck) bansuri, duduk
2013 Long Walk to Freedom (dir. Justin Chadwick, comp. Alex Heffes) bansuri, kora
2011 Marat/Sade (RSC, dir. Anthony Neilson, comp. Khayyam Alami) ney, duduk, arghul, zurna
2011 The Promise (C4, dir. Peter Kosminsky, comp. Debbie Wiseman) duduk, ney
2010 Morte D'Arthur (RSC, dir. Greg Doran, comp. Adrian Lee) harp, shawm, cornu, kaval, duduk, cornemuse, Irish flute
2010 Joanna Lumley's Nile (BBC1, comp. Debbie Wiseman) duduk, ney
2010 12th Night (RSC, dir. Greg Doran, comp. Paul Englishby) bansuri, kaval, duduk
2010 Eagle of the Ninth (dir. Kevin MacDonald, comp. Alex Heffes) animal horns, primitive trumpets
2009 Agora (dir. Alejandro Amenábar, comp. Dario Marianelli) duduk
2009 Peter Pan (dir. Ben Harrison, comp. Ben Wallfisch) duduk
2009 State of Play (dir. Kevin MacDonald, comp. Alex Heffes) duduk
2009 Nature's Great Events with David Attenborough (BBC2, comp. Ben Salisbury) duduk, American native flute
2009 Iran and the West (BBC2, comp. Samuel Sim) duduk
2008 Survivors (BBC1, comp. Edmund Butt) duduk, suling
2008 I'll be the Devil RSC Tricycle Theatre (dir. Ramin Gray, comp. Peter Cowdrey): clarsach, gaida, dudy, early English bagpipes, uilleann pipes, zampogna, mezoued
2008 The Passion (BBC1 dir. Michael Offer, comp. Debbie Wiseman): duduk
2008 The House of Saddam (BBC1, comp. Samuel Sim): duduk, ney
2007 Summer Heat (Independent feature, comp. Christian Henson): kora
2007 Caotica Ana (independent feature, comp. Jocelyn Pook): ney, duduk, Native American flute
2007 Sa Majesté Minor (dir. Jean-Jacques Annaud, comp. Javier Navarette): kaval, duduk, nyatiti
2006 The Last King of Scotland Oscar and BAFTA winner (dir. Kevin Macdonald, comp. Alex Heffes): nyatiti, filimbi
2006 The Virgin Queen (BBC2, comp. Martin Phipps): kaval, duduk, kora
2006 Julius Caesar RSC Stratford and Michigan (dir. Sean Holmes, comp. Adrian Lee): zurna, arghoul, filimbi, kaval, cornu, duduk, flutes
2005 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Warner, comp. Patrick Doyle): duduk, Turkish kaval, Highland bagpipes
2003–2015 The Veil of the Temple (Sir John Tavener) London, New York, Amsterdam, Brighton, Trondheim: duduk
2002 Pericles RSC London Round House and RST Stratford (dir. Adrian Noble, comp. Shaun Davey): gaida, duduk, ney, kaval, clarinet
2002 The Roman Actor RSC Stratford and Gielgud Theatre London (dir. Greg Doran, comp. Adrian Lee): ney, bansuri, totek chanter, orchestral flutes, clarinet, harp, percussion
2000 Fall and Resurrection (Sir John Tavener) St Paul's Cathedral: kaval
1999 Tales from Ovid RSC Stratford London Young Vic and Strasbourg (dir. Tim Supple, comp. Adrian Lee): ney, dizi, bansuri, totek chanter, orchestral flutes, dijeridu, percussion
1998 Colour Blind (ITV, comp. Alan Parker) uilleann pipes
Bands/albums
Egg/Egg
Decca 1970
Egg/The Polite Force
Decca 1971
Egg/The Civil Surface
Virgin 1975
World Wind Band/Safar Hermes 2004
Kalamus/Bronze
2011