Luke Lewis is a composer/arranger, researcher, and occasional conductor. He was educated at a comprehensive school in West Wales before studying music at the University of Salford. As an electric guitarist, he initially moved for the department’s expertise in pop and jazz music, but composition became his focus through studies under Joe Duddell. Following this, he completed a master's and AHRC-funded doctorate at the University of Oxford where he was supervised by Robert Saxton and Jonathan Cross. He also studied composition and orchestration with Hans Abrahamsen at the Royal Danish Academy of Music for a year.
Luke's music has been performed and commissioned internationally by ensembles such as the London Sinfonietta, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, GBSR Duo, Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen, Esbjerg Ensemble, and Orkest de Ereprijs. As an arranger/orchestrator in the pop world, he's worked for artists such as Gaz Coombes, Katie Melua, Clean Bandit and Richard Walters in collaboration with everything from bespoke chamber ensembles to the BBC Philharmonic and London Symphony Orchestras.
Alongside his role as a Departmental Lecturer at the Faculty of Music, Luke is the Stipendiary Lecturer in Music at New College and College Lecturer at St. John's. His main teaching interests are in free composition, stylistic composition/techniques of composition (especially pop/jazz and 20th-century styles), arranging/orchestration and analysis.
[new work] for voice & wind quintet (2024-25), for Ensemble Renard
‘A Composer in the Factory: Factory Classical, English Radicalism, and Steve Martland’s Glad Day’, article forthcoming
O Dreamland for piano and percussion (2024), for GBSR Duo
gardening tips for string quartet & electronics (2023-24), for Komuna Collective
Queneau Études for harpsichord (2023), for Dónal McCann
the echoes return slow for nine players & electronics (2021-22), for London Sinfonietta
five portraits for string quartet (2021), for Solem Quartet
shrove duos for two melody instruments (2020-21), for Jonathan Morton and Clio Gould (London Sinfonietta)
variations on themes of Richard D. James for sextet (2018-19)
flocks and companies for piano (2015), for Iwan Llewelyn-Jones
what broken hierarchies for voices & large ensemble (2014), for Ensemble de Ereprijs
by which all eloquence gets justified for ten players (2014), for Esberg Ensemble
over us the shifting rafters for orchestra (2013), for BBC National Orchestra of Wales
...and all watched over by machines of loving grace for sextet (2012-13), for Ensemble ISIS