John Arthur Casken (born 15 July 1949) is an English composer.
Casken was born inBarnsley,West Riding of Yorkshire, England. While at Barnsley Grammar School in the 1960s his music teacher played a recording ofBerg's Violin Concerto, which had a lasting influence.[1] He studied composition at theUniversity of Birmingham withJohn Joubert andPeter Dickinson.[2] He attended the Warsaw Academy of Music between 1971 and 1972, where he studied withAndrzej Dobrowolski but also met and became friends withWitold Lutosławski.[3] He has lectured at the universities of Birmingham (from 1973) and Durham (from 1981), and between 1992 and 2008 he was Professor of Music at theUniversity of Manchester.[4] Casken's students includeMichael Alcorn,David Jennings andJames MacMillan.[5]
Casken lives in Northumberland. He has acknowledged the landscape as a significant influence on his work. Works such as the orchestralOrion Over Farne (1984), the unaccompanied choral workTo Fields We Do Not Know (1985), (described as "a Northumbrian elegy"), the orchestral song-cycleStill Mine (1992), the ensemble pieceWinter Reels (2010) and the choralUncertain Sea (2014) have all drawn inspiration from Northumberland.[4] Casken has also composed two operas:Golem (1988), which has been revived frequently,[1] andGod's Liar (2000), the latter based onTolstoy's novellaFather Sergius.
His Cello Concerto of 1991 was written forHeinrich Schiff. The Violin Concerto was premiered at the 1995Proms withDmitri Sitkovetsky as soloist,[2] and the Oboe ConcertoApollinaire’s Bird (written for Stéphane Rancourt) and Trombone ConcertoMadonna of Silence (written for Katy Jones) were premiered by theHallé Orchestra in 2014 and 2019 respectively. There is also the SymphonyBroken Consort (2004), performed at the 2004 Proms, a Concerto for Orchestra (2007), and a Double Concerto for Violin, Viola and OrchestraThat Subtle Knot (2013).[6]
Casken has written much chamber music, including three string quartets, the first in 1982.[3] The Piano Trio (2003) uses themes from the operaGod's Liar as its source material.[7] He wroteRest-ringing, unusually scored for string quartet and orchestra, for theLindsay Quartet in 2005.[1]
Recent work has shown a renewal of interest in musical theatre, with the melodramaDeadly Pleasures for narrator and small ensemble, based a poem byD M Thomas concerning the life ofCleopatra, and a monodrama,Kokoschka’s Doll, premiered at the Cheltenham Festival in 2017, about Alma Mahler's relationship with the painterOskar Kokoschka. A CD ofKokoschka’s Doll was released in 2020.[8]
In October 2025, he received anIvor Novello Award nomination for his pieceMantle for piano and wind quintet.[9]
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