
I am a British composer particularly active in the field of organ and sacred choral music but my commissioned pieces also include orchestral, ballet and piano music. Among my bigger works are a violin concerto and two symphonies; the first symphony was commissioned for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
There are audio clips of various of my compositions on soundcloud.
CONTACT ME using this link.
As well as finding up-
COMPOSITION NEWS:
Archangels for organ was published by Banks Music Publications 18 April 2013. There are three videos of me playing the piece on Youtube: St Gabriel, St Raphael and St Michael and a review on Bachtrack. It has also been written about on The Lady Organist.
Come to your Heaven for choir and organ was released on the Priory Label in December 2012 sung by the choir or St Michael’s, Cornhill, conducted by Jonathan Rennert. The piece was commissioned by the Worshipful Company of Musicians.
OTHER NEWS:
I am editing Bruckner’s Psalm 150 for the New Bruckner Edition.
I’m conducting the choir of St Mary’s, Woodford as part of a Celebration of Psalms at the church on Saturday 11 May 2013 at 7.30. Tickets £8.
For RCO (Royal College of Organists) St Giles Organ School, I’m giving a class called Introducing Advanced Harmony on Saturday 25 May 2013. For RCO Academy I’m teaching at a study day called Preparing for CertRCO, ARCO and FRCO on Saturday 22 June 2013.
GENERAL BACKGROUND:
My main musical mentors in composition were Howard Ferguson and Margaret Hubicki. Having started composing as a fairly small child, my music first came before the wider musical world when the CD of my Lament for Bosnia (FCC 0001) was top of the classical charts in Tower Records for several weeks and it is still my most performed and broadcast work, including several airings on the BBC and Classic FM. Particularly memorable for me was conducting Lament with the Strings of the Royal Academy of Music and with the Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra. Since Lament I have been fortunate that one composing opportunity has led to another.
My First Symphony was commissioned by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and performed in the main concert season of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the Royal Albert Hall, conducted by Vernon Handley and broadcast on Classic FM. My Second Symphony and Violin Concerto were both performed on separate occasions at St John’s, Smith Square. A ballet, Alice, was commissioned by the Stadttheater in Giessen, Germany, and has received many performances. Missa Pacis, an orchestral and choral mass, was commissioned for the Brompton Oratory, London. Top of the Morning for flute and piano (in Flute Time Pieces 1) was published by OUP. Bagatelle for piano, played by Mark Tanner, was released on disc in 2009 (PRCD 1018). These are just some selected highlights; contact me for more detailed information.
I was born in Birmingham, the only child of my British-
My occasional organ recitals have been in churches, cathedrals and college chapels,
including King’s College, Cambridge. I also played a piano duet with James Kirby
on a CD for Chandos featuring the music of Margaret Hubicki (CHAN 10322). I have
held various church-
Hoping to deepen my composing technique, I decided to make a study of Anton Bruckner’s
mammoth musical apprenticeship with Simon Sechter and its influence on Bruckner’s
Music. The research was awarded a PhD from Manchester University and was subsequently
published as a book: Simon Sechter’s Fundamental-
My piano teaching led to the invention of Scale Shapes using the ‘Stocken Method’,
published in five volumes by Chester Music, which is now in its third revised edition.
It is a diagrammatic method for learning scales, which, although conceived in a moment,
has had surprising international popularity. Examining for the Associated Board of
the Royal Schools of Music has taken me to many countries, especially in south-
Today I live in Poplar in East London, in the shadow of Canary Wharf, combining composition with organ playing and freelance teaching, mainly for RCO St Giles Organ School.
REVIEWS
“The brief Bagatelle (2008) by Frederick Stocken (born 1967) is a bittersweet treat, fully expressed in tonal terms. One can almost taste Tanner’s enjoyment.” Fanfare Magazine.
“Stocken’s Bagatelle is only two-
“Stocken’s Bagatelle plays with major-
“At last a young English composer has chosen to write accessible, beautiful music which is unashamedly passionate and melodic.” A.N. Wilson, The Evening Standard.
“…it is music which makes me believe that a new Sibelius or a new Elgar has been born.” A.N. Wilson, The Spectator.
“… one of the most promising talents of his generation….it is refreshing to find
a composer who is producing music which is clear, profound, free-
“Stocken is forging his own language.” Nottingham Evening Post.
“Stocken’s work will also prove popular with players for he has written very much a showpiece for the violin.” The Strad.
“The Agnus Dei of his Mass was beautiful and quite striking with ladders of woodwind rising against the sound of the solo singers, soon to be shattered by the sound of war (as in, but not like, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis.)” The Tablet.
“Stocken has managed to create something like a ‘symphony of the city’ that is suitable for our time, which makes you breathless and sometimes invites you to rest.” Translated from Wetzlauer Neue Zeitung.
“Frederick Stocken has written a surprisingly melodic score especially for this entertaining spectacle, reminiscent of the late romantics.” Translated from Giessener Anzeiger.
Composer