John Harle (born 20 September 1956) is an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

saxophonist, composer, educator and record producer. He is an

Ivor Novello Award The Ivor Novello Awards, named after the entertainer Ivor Novello, are awards for songwriting and composing. They have been presented annually in London by the Ivors Academy (formerly the BASCA) since 1956, and over 1,000 statuettes have been a ...

winner and has been the recipient of two

Royal Television Society The Royal Television Society (RTS) is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present, and future. It is the oldest television society in the world. It currently has fourteen r ...

awards.

Biography

Harle was born in

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

. Following his education at the

Royal College of Music in London The Royal College of Music is a music school, conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the Undergraduate education, undergraduate to the Doctorate, doctoral level in a ...

and, as a French Government Music Scholar, in Paris with Daniel Deffayet, he won the Amcon Award of The American Concert Artists Guild. In his early years, he was a member of the band of composer

Michael Nyman Michael Laurence Nyman, Order of the British Empire, CBE (born 23 March 1944) is an English composer, pianist, libretto, librettist, musicologist, and filmmaker. He is known for numerous film soundtrack, scores (many written during his length ...

and orchestrator for film composer

Stanley Myers Stanley Myers (6 October 19309 November 1993) was an English composer and conductor, who scored over sixty films and television series, working closely with filmmakers Nicolas Roeg, Jerzy Skolimowski and Volker Schlöndorff. He is best known fo ...

, expanding from that into scoring for film and television. In the 1990s, he began a career as saxophonist and composer, both artistically and commercially. He composed the theme tune and music for the BBC TV series ''

Silent Witness ''Silent Witness'' is a British crime drama television series produced by the BBC, which focuses on a team of forensic pathology experts and their investigations into various crimes. First broadcast in 1996, the series was created by Nigel McC ...

'' and, in May 1998, was the castaway on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

's long-running ''

Desert Island Discs ''Desert Island Discs'' is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme on 29 January 1942. Each week a guest, called a " castaway" during the programme, is asked to choose eight recordings (usu ...

'' programme, with the BBC describing him as "the most-recorded saxophonist in the world". He was artistic advisor to

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

for six years, and has collaborated with

Elvis Costello Declan Patrick MacManus Order of the British Empire, OBE (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. He has won multiple awards in his career, including a Grammy Award in ...

Herbie Hancock Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, and composer. Hancock started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. He shortly thereafter joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he help ...

and

Elmer Bernstein Elmer Bernstein ( '; April 4, 1922August 18, 2004) was an American composer and conductor. In a career that spanned over five decades, he composed "some of the most recognizable and memorable themes in Hollywood history", including over 150 origi ...

. In addition to his own prolific recording, Harle has contributed directly or indirectly to a number of charting songs and albums by others. A jingle he wrote for

Nissan , trade name, trading as Nissan Motor Corporation and often shortened to Nissan, is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Japan. The company sells ...

in 1993 became the basis of a charting pop single by

Jazzie B Trevor Beresford Romeo OBE, (born 26 January 1963) better known as Jazzie B, is a British DJ and music producer. He is the founder of Soul II Soul. Life and career Jazzie was born in London UK to parents of Antiguan descent in Hornsey, Londo ...

. His ''

Terror and Magnificence ''Terror & Magnificence'' is a 1997 classical album by John Harle, featuring Elvis Costello, Sarah Leonard, and Andy Sheppard Andy Sheppard (born 20 January 1957) is a British jazz saxophonist and composer. He has been awarded several p ...

'' (1996) featured

, Sarah Leonard and

Andy Sheppard Andy Sheppard (born 20 January 1957) is a British jazz saxophonist and composer. He has been awarded several prizes at the British Jazz Awards, and has worked with some notable figures in contemporary jazz, including Gil Evans, Carla Bley, ...

. He contributed to the charting album ''

Standing Stone A menhir (from Brittonic languages: ''maen'' or ''men'', "stone" and ''hir'' or ''hîr'', "long"), standing stone, orthostat, or lith is a large human-made upright rock (geology), stone, typically dating from the European middle Bronze Age. T ...

'' (1997) by Paul McCartney. Harle has also been an educator, serving at the

Guildhall School of Music and Drama The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is a conservatoire and drama school located in the City of London, United Kingdom. Established in 1880, the school offers undergraduate and postgraduate training in all aspects of classical music and jazz ...

in London in the late 1980s as a professor of Saxophone and Chamber Music. He is currently Professor of Saxophone at the Guildhall School. In 2012, the

awarded Harle its "Music: Original Score" award for his composition for BBC 2's programme ''

Lucian Freud Lucian Michael Freud (; 8 December 1922 – 20 July 2011) was a British painter and draughtsman, specialising in figurative art, and is known as one of the foremost 20th-century English portraitists. He was born in Berlin, the son of Jewis ...

: Painted Life'', describing it as "An excellent, challenging and original score that perfectly complements Freud's powerful imagery". It also won the 2013

British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors The Ivors Academy (formerly the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors – BASCA) is one of the largest professional associations for music writers in Europe. The academy exists to support, protect, and campaign for the interests ...

(BASCA)

for "Best Television Soundtrack". In October 2013, on

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...

's ''In Tune'' programme, Harle talked about his recently released album ''Art Music'', the composition of which was inspired by his favourite paintings. Harle appeared with

Marc Almond Peter Mark Sinclair "Marc" Almond, (born 9 July 1957) is an English singer. Almond first began performing and recording in the synthpop/ new wave duo Soft Cell where he became known for his distinctive soulful voice and androgynous image. He ...

's '' Front Row'' in February 2014 to discuss their collaborative work about Gothic London, ''

The Tyburn Tree (Dark London) ''The Tyburn Tree (Dark London)'' is the seventeenth solo studio album by the British singer/songwriter Marc Almond. The album is a collaboration with the composer John Harle and was released on Harle's Sospiro Noir label on 24 February 2014. ...

''. Harle was a guest on the same programme in November of that year, to mark the

bicentenary __NOTOC__ A bicentennial or bicentenary is the two-hundredth anniversary of a part, or the celebrations thereof. It may refer to: Europe *French Revolution bicentennial, commemorating the 200th anniversary of 14 July 1789 uprising, celebrated ...

of the birth of

Adolphe Sax Antoine-Joseph "Adolphe" Sax (; 6 November 1814 – 4 February 1894) was a Belgian inventor and musician who invented the saxophone in the early 1840s, patenting it in 1846. He also invented the saxotromba, saxhorn and saxtuba. He played the fl ...

by assessing the contribution of Sax's invention, the saxophone. Harle has written a reference book, ''The Saxophone: The Art and Science of Playing and Performing'', published in May 2017.

Personal life

Harle has two sons, writer and curator Matthew Harle, and

Mad Decent Mad Decent is an American record label founded by Diplo. The label has helped introduce Brazilian baile funk and Angolan kuduro to clubs around the world. Recently, it has popularized moombahton, a genre of electronic dance music created by DJ ...

composer and producer

Danny L Harle Daniel Jack Eisner Harle is a British music producer and composer who records under the alias Danny L Harle. He was formerly signed to the London-based PC Music label and is a member of Dux Content with A. G. Cook. He has produced, composed, a ...

References

External links

*
John Harle's homepage at Chester Music
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harle, John 1956 births Living people 21st-century saxophonists 21st-century British male musicians Alumni of the Royal College of Music British male saxophonists Contemporary classical music performers English composers English classical saxophonists Musicians from Newcastle upon Tyne People educated at the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle upon Tyne