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Stephen Mark Barchan (b.1982) is a composer and conductor based in the UK.
Awards for composition include the 4th Andrzej Panufnik International Young Composers Competition (2002, special mention), Denis and Maud Wright Composition Award (2003), British Scholarship for Ostrava Days (2003), J. Wood and Sons Prize (2004) and the Philip Bates Prize for Young Composers (2005, joint-second prize). In 2006 his piece for solo clarinet Violent Shallow Eyes was shortlisted for 2006–2009 by the spnm, who later nominated Injured Love (for small ensemble) and Spit It Out (for flute and piano) for the ISCM World Music Days 2008 and 2009 respectively. During 2010 he joined the London Sinfonietta Collective and was also awarded a runner-up prize for Opened Up in the International Composer Pyramid 2010 (a joint partnership between Sounds New Contemporary Music Festival and Coups de Vents).
Amongst the organisations who have presented his music are LSO Discovery, Ostrava Days, Park Lane Group and Soundwaves Festival at venues including Cineworld (Shaftesbury Avenue), LSO St Lukes, Purcell Room and Queen Elizabeth Hall (Southbank Centre), The Warehouse and Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall. Performances of his work have been given by Composers’ Ensemble, Endymion, Orfeusz Chamber Orchestra, Psappha, Sounds Positive and Warehouse Ensemble. As a conductor, he had worked with Azalea Ensemble, Birmingham Conservatoire Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Firebird, Galliard Ensemble (former BBC New Generation Artists), Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra, London Sinfonietta Collective and Maverick TV/Channel 4 Television.
Recent projects have included a commission from Thursday Film Ltd. to write the score for the 2010 short film The Gap, a commission to write additional music for the television show The Fast Lane (broadcast in over thirty countries by Motors TV) and a commission to write the score for the 2009 film A Closed Book (premiered at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and based on the novel A Closed Book by Gilbert Adair, published by Faber and Faber) directed by Raoul Ruiz and starring Daryl Hannah, Tom Conti, Miriam Margoyles, Elaine Paige and Simon MacCorkindale.
Whilst at (and shortly after leaving) music college he worked as a music copyist for Faber Music Ltd., Samuel French Ltd. and United Music Publishers Ltd., along with individual projects for Anthony Payne, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Joe Cutler, Lionel Friend and Tempo music magazine.
