• Biography

Biography

David Fanshawe was an English composer, ethnic field recorder, guest speaker, record producer, photographer, author, and TV personality.His ambition to record indigenous folk music began in the Middle East in 1966 and was intensified on subsequent journeys through North and East Africa. In Africa he succeeded in documenting hundreds of tribes, achieving such close rapport with local communities that they gave him special permission to record their performances. Since 1978, his ten year Odyssey recording across the Pacific ocean has resulted in a monumental archive of 2000 stereo tapes, 950 boxes of colored slides and 40 volumes of hand-written journals, preserving and documenting the traditional music and oral traditions of Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia.

Fanshawe wrote several choral and concert works, including his highly acclaimed choral work African Sanctus. He has also written over fifty scores for Film and Television including Rank's Tarka the Otter, BBC's When The Boat Comes In and YTV's Flambards. His recordings feature on films like "Seven Years in Tibet" and "Gangs of New York".