Tarik O'Regan

Tarik Hamilton O'Regan is a London-born composer based in San Francisco. In recent years much of his work has investigated and been influenced by his dual Arab and Irish heritages.

The 2023/24 season sees performances by the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra in Denmark, the Dunedin Consort in the UK, and Santa Fe Desert Chorale in the US. His work will also be heard at this year’s BBC Proms. Recently he was commissioned by His Majesty King Charles III to compose the Agnus Dei – “an ethereal and exquisitely worked setting” (Gramophone) – for the Coronation Service at Westminster Abbey.

Tarik’s music is described as “exquisite and delicate” (The Washington Post); “beautifully-imagined, holding the audience rapt” (The Financial Times); “sublime: a piece that you didn't want to end” (The Times, London); and generating “previously unheard sound worlds with astonishing effect” (The Philadelphia Inquirer). He has worked with a wide variety of ensembles and organizations; these include the Dutch National Ballet, Houston Grand Opera, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Sydney Dance Company, BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, and the Royal Opera House in London.

His output, recognized with two GRAMMY® nominations (including Best Classical Album) and two Ivors®, has been recorded on over 47 albums and is published exclusively by Novello.

“One of the leading composers of his generation” (Gramophone) who is writing “music of startling beauty” (The Observer), Tarik was born in in 1978. He grew up predominantly in Croydon, South London, spending some of his childhood in Morocco, where his mother was born, and in Algeria. Following the completion of his undergraduate studies at Pembroke College, Oxford, and private study with Jeremy Dale Roberts, he began serving as the classical recording reviewer for The Observer newspaper, a position he held for four years. During part of this time he also worked for investment bank JPMorgan Chase. He then continued his postgraduate studies in composition under the direction of both Robin Holloway at Cambridge University, where he was appointed Composer-in-Residence at Corpus Christi College, and Robert Saxton.

He has been appointed to the Fulbright Chester Schirmer Fellowship at Columbia University; a RadcliffeInstitute Fellowship at Harvard; and positions at Trinity and Corpus Christi Colleges in Cambridge, Yale, Stanford, and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He has served on the composition faculty of Rutgers University, and as Senior Advisor to the Center for Ballet and the Arts at New York University. A frequent television and radio broadcaster, he has written and presented two documentaries for BBC Radio 4: Composing LA and Composing New York.

Tarik maintains a longstanding commitment to education and service to the arts in general. Most recently, this has been recognized by his election to an Honorary Fellowship of Pembroke College, Oxford, and to the board of Yaddo, one of the oldest artists’ communities in the USA. Tarik was also included in the Washington Post’s annual list of creative artists “changing the classical landscape” for 2022.