Over the course of an immensely busy musical career as composer, pianist and conductor Howard Blake has created over 700 works in many genres and categories.

Born in London and raised Sussex, Blake was a notable soprano and performed in principal roles in the annual Gilbert and Sullivan productions at Brighton Grammar School. At 18 he won a scholarship to The Royal Academy of Music to study piano with Harold Craxton and composition with Howard Ferguson.

His most celebrated score is undoubtedly that composed for the animated film The Snowman (1982) with its iconic song Walking in the Air for which he also wrote the lyrics. The orchestral concert version of The Snowman is performed world-wide whilst the theatrical stage show, in effect a full-length ballet, has run for nearly thirty years in the West End courtesy of Sadlers Wells. Concert works include the Piano Concerto commissioned by The Philharmonia Orchestra for Princess Diana’s thirtieth birthday, the Violin Concerto commissioned by the City of Leeds and The English Northern Philharmonia Orchestra, the Clarinet Concerto for Thea King and the English Chamber Orchestra and large-scale choral/orchestral works such as The Passion of Mary and Benedictus, which was championed and recorded by Sir David Willcocks and Robert Tear with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Bach Choir. His catalogue of recordings include Sir Neville Marriner conducting his Woodwind Concertos with The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and an album of his piano music recorded for Decca by Vladimir Ashkenazy.

Amongst scores for feature films are Sir Ridley Scott’s The Duellists (1977) which won the critics award at the Cannes Film Festival, his orchestral score for Flash Gordon (1980) for which he was jointly nominated for a BAFTA award with the group Queen, and A Month in the Country (1987) which won the BFI Anthony Asquith Award for musical excellence. In 2010 a performance of Blake’s Diversions in Bratislava won the young cellist Benedict Kloeckner The European Broadcasting Union Award which led to further collaborations and compositions.

Howard is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music and received the Order of the British Empire from the Queen for services to music. Highbridge Music Limited was established in 1983 to publish and distribute the comprehensive catalogue of Blake’s compositions.