David John Roche

Currently putting together a talk that includes a segment on finding your musical voice. Any composers want to offer their 2 cents?

Michelle played one of my pieces earlier in the year - fab player!

YouTube video by Vale of Glamorgan Festival World Premiere / Premiere Byd: David John Roche 'Waves of Love'

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Really looking forward to the first lecture of my new composition module - Creative Musical Composition - with Aberystwyth University. All starting tomorrow! Hurray!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLiC...

YouTube video by David Roche Composer and Performer Chat | Gentle Constancy | Solo Guitar

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 If you'd like to hear more about my new composition - Gentle Constancy - ahead of Sunday's concert at the Royal Welsh College, then check out this chat!

🧨 Topics include: frustrating editing and parts, TAB, writing music, how I tuned my guitar wrong.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbxn...

My city, my music: Cardiff Where music is heard at its best A musical tour through Cardiff by Music Patron composer David John Roche. Dora

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Ahead the premiere of Gentle Constancy this Sunday at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama - Coleg Brenhinol Cerdd a Drama Cymru (supported by the PRS Foundation), I wrote this article for Music Patron's My City, My Music series. Check it out!

musicpatron.com/my-city-my-m...

Happy days, right?

🎻 If you like the look of what I do, come and hear my new piece, Gentle Constancy - written for Gerard Cousins - at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama - Coleg Brenhinol Cerdd a Drama Cymru this Sunday. Funded by the PRS Foundation.

🎷 "David’s international successes are helping to showcase Welsh music from working-class backgrounds to audiences across the world." Woo!

📷 Photo by Nadine Ballantyne Photography & Design.
🎤 You can support me further via Music Patron.

🥂 The winners will return to Cardiff in October to receive their awards at a special ceremony hosted by the University’s Vice Chancellor. The event will be emceed by BBC Radio 1 DJs and 2024 winners (my Champagne sense is tingling).

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 I absolutely loved studying at Cardiff University School of Music / Cardiff University - so it's lovely to be named one of the winners of the University’s prestigious 2025 30(ish) Awards, which celebrate alumni making a positive impact in their communities – all before they hit 30. Well, 30(ish).

How music can make us think differently about dementia The sold-out premiere of “The Lyric Path” will take place on Saturday, 9 August 2025 at Nantwen, Pembrokeshire, as part of their much-anticipated annual summer concert. Following an award from the ...

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 A fab article by The Dementia Trust, about my recent commission for Nantwen Ensemble. Make sure you check it out, and make sure you watch the video (it really is lovely!).

dementiatrust.org/news-and-vie...

YouTube video by Tanglewood Music Center ROCHE Thousandth Hymnal (World Premiere) - TMC

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 My THOUSANDTH HYMNAL, for seven double basses, received First Prize at the International Double Bass Festival Belgium. Wahoo!

🪄 This was a commission from the Tanglewood Music Center - an amazing set of performers!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Obn-...

YouTube video by David Roche For Alex | Solo Guitar | David John Roche

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿Check out this fab recording by Gerard Cousins - it's my tremolo piece, For Alex.

🪄 I wrote this maybe 10 years ago now (I was 23 or 24, which seems insanely long ago now). The very high chords are probably the give away that I'm actually an electric player!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLz_...

🪄 Make sure you check this out. I wrote the opening while working in Heffers Bookshop many, many years ago. My wife and I later played it at out wedding!

YouTube video by David Roche For Alex | Solo Guitar | David John Roche

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 In tandem with the release of The Only Marriage, I've uploaded a score video from Gerard Cousins' previous album - the piece is called For Alex.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLz_...

YouTube video by David Roche The Only Marriage | Solo Guitar | David John Roche

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 New piece online - check it out! Fab playing by Gerard Cousins, out as a single today!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ave...

The number of managers who add people to their mailing lists without consent is absurd. It's not just rude - it is illegal (in the UK, at least). Don't be that person, it looks awful.

YouTube video by David Roche David John Roche | Tremolo Study 4 | Solo Guitar

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 It's Friday, it's sunny (ish), and I've had a lovely coffee. It's going to be good.

🪄 Check out this performance (by me!) of my tremolo study. It contains some of the most LH ridiculous stretches you could ask for... but I love it.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6E-...

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 From October, I'm going to be working as an Academic Tutor with Aberystwyth University's Centre for Lifelong Learning. Hurray!

🪄 Learn more below and sign up! It's going to be a lot of fun - don't be afraid to reach out to me!

www.aber.ac.uk/en/lifelong-...

YouTube video by Atom Music School Always With Me, Always With You Trinity Grade 8 Guitar

It's Friday night and I obviously need a hobby, but how out of tune is this Trinity Grade 8 backing track? It's the official one too!

The B is so sharp you could cut your finger on it - students are supposed to use this in exams! Eek!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mN_g...

HIVEMIND: Are there any resources out there that detail how much Welsh music gets programmed in Wales, the UK, and internationally?

Every Night With You I Die A Little EP, by Beautiful Pea Green Boat 4 track album

A while back, someone asked why Beautiful Pea Green Boat's 1990 12" EP, Every Night With You I Die A Little was not available online, so I raided the Slaughterback archives and here it is. #bpgb #synthsky #synthpop #electropop #1990s #thirdmind

beautifulpeagreenboat.bandcamp.com/album/every-...

If a role is publicly funded, pays £30000 a year or under, and the appointing organisation won't take CVs, then it should be illegal to request a prospective applicant to fill out a form that is over 2000 words. Organisations should also be compelled to accept generic information as a PDF document.

Composition Workshop and Masterclass - Abingdon Senior School Composer David John Roche returned to Abingdon School in May to lead a workshop and masterclass with our Fourth Year and Lower Sixth composers. Drawing

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Lovely to be back at Abingdon School earlier this year - really fantastic music being made by really talented students. A fab day!

www.abingdon.org.uk/composition-...

It is sad that the music shop PMT is closing. However, when they first arrived they eviscerated all of the local and independently-owned music shops. Now they're packing up and leaving people with almost nothing. Poorly-managed, a poor choice to let them set up shop initially.

David John Roche | Classical Music Composer | Wales Described as “one of the most energetic, driven, and successful of Wales’s millennial generation of composers” (Tŷ Cerdd) and hailed as “a glorious confusion of rock and film music […] irresistible” (...

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 A lovely, fresh, and updated website, with some of the fantastic photos from recent concerts and events - awesome.

📣 Check it out, listen to some music, commission a few symphonies, it'll be fantastic. Do it!

www.davidjohnroche.com

Following the award from the @thedementiatrust we are delighted that @yourbestfrienddave David John Roche has agreed to compose the work for our Nantwen Ensemble… come and listen to this new work in o... Following the award from the @thedementiatrust we are delighted that @yourbestfrienddave David John Roche has agreed to compose the work for our Nantwen Ensemble… come and listen to this new work in.....

🔥 Really excited to be working on a fantastic new commission for Nantwen and the Dementia Trust. It's a honour to work on such a meaningful and sensitive project - I can't wait to hear the performances!

www.facebook.com/reel/1475949...

🌟 Following this, I'll be spending some time at Gladstone's Library - gratefully funded with the Sara Richards and Joseph Boughey Scholarship. I will be researching and developing some ideas around Welsh music, unfolding into projects over the next few years. Very exciting (and awesome)!

🌟 I'll be giving a presentation at the Royal Musical Association’s Composer-Performer Collaboration Study Group at the Royal Academy of Music. Talking about my recent 30-minute work - commissioned by the mighty Canolfan a Theatr Soar - for metal band and organ.

🌟 I've been invited to give presentation for the UK Department for Education. I'll be talking about social mobility, class, and access in music. It's going to be awesome.