Daryl Griffith is an award winning composer, orchestrator, and conductor.
Formerly music director and principal conductor for London City Ballet as well as principal pianist and conductor for English National Ballet, Daryl Griffith’s music career spans many genres.
For TV and film, he has orchestrated projects including “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”, “Young Visiters” (BAFTA winner), “Prime Suspect” (BAFTA winner) and “Arabian Nights”.
In theatre, he orchestrated and conducted Matthew Bourne's Cinderella, and conducted Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake on its UK tour.
Daryl is also a prolific composer of production music. Previously composing for EMI/Sony ATV, he is now co-owner and creative director of production music catalogue 2nd Foundation Music, with his music used globally in a wide range of programmes including several “Star Wars” trailers, “Bridgerton”, “Yellowjackets”, ”The Apprentice”, “Saturday Night Live”, and the Olympics.
Biography
Daryl gave his first performance at the age of three, and has been performing ever since. He achieved many awards throughout his musical education, including the Silver Medal for Grade 8 Violin. At the Royal College of Music, he studied Violin with Maria Lidka, Piano with Phyllis Sellick, Conducting with John Forster and Composition with Adrian Cruft, and was awarded the Hecht and Alchin prize for Composition during his final year of study. His LGSM Diploma recital was awarded the First Silver Medal for obtaining the highest mark in the world during that session for any instrumental recital and he was subsequently appointed Professor of Violin.
Whilst working as Conductor and Principal Pianist with English National Ballet, Daryl began orchestrating and arranging. Commissions included arrangements of The Sanguine Fan, Aureole and a special orchestration of Happy Birthday for the 80th birthday of Nicholas Beriossof. In 1992, Daryl began Guest Conducting for ENB, touring domestically and internationally. He was also invited to be the Principal Conductor for London City Ballet, and the following year was promoted to Music Director, continuing to guest conduct with many other companies and orchestras, including English National Ballet, the Royal Danish Ballet, and the London Concert Orchestra. Daryl is in demand throughout Europe and the UK as a session conductor, and is currently a staff conductor at the Synchron Stage Vienna.
Daryl arranged a series of reduced orchestrations of popular ballets for London City Ballet, English National Ballet and Matthew Bourne's "Adventures in Motion Pictures". His orchestration of Prokofieff’s Cinderella, produced in London’s West End, later transferred to Los Angeles' Ahmenson Theater, where Daryl was asked to be Music Director and Principal Conductor. Daryl was commissioned to compose, orchestrate, and arrange the music for English National Ballet’s children’s ballet Angelina’s Star Performance, and recorded the score for commercial DVD release.
Orchestrations include BAFTA nominated Oliver Twist (composed by Paul Pritchard), BAFTA winning The Young Visiters and Prime Suspect: The Final Act (composed by Nick Hooper), Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Warner Brothers) and Bedtime Stories (Disney). Daryl has provided arrangements for global companies including Mastercard, Citroën, Virgin Trains, and Sky News.
Daryl’s own music has been licensed worldwide for programmes and commercials as high profile as Sex in the City (HBO), Love Child (ITV), Chuck (NBC), Häagen Dazs, White Collar (USA Network) and Desperate Housewives (ABC). His production music label, 2nd Foundation Music, licences his music globally for Film & TV including The Apprentice (BBC), various commercials and advertising campaigns, and theatrical trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Disney). Daryl is also director of Maestro Music UK, a high-quality music production company offering a range of bespoke production services, specialising in music for television, theatre and film. And, in 2023 Daryl launched Conducting for Film to help composers improve their session conducting skills.