John Metcalfe

John Metcalfe

John Metcalfe is a UK-based composer, arranger and violist from Wellington, United Kingdom. He works across alternative rock, avant-garde, club, electronic and indie rock, and his background spans classical music, pop and electronica. His early influences include opera, through his father’s work as an operatic tenor, as well as Joy Division and Kraftwerk.

Career and ensembles

Metcalfe co-founds the Duke Quartet as a violist and helps establish its reputation as one of the UK’s notable string ensembles. He is a member of the Duke Quartet and the New Blood Orchestra, and he is a former member of The Durutti Column. He joins Vini Reilly in The Durutti Column in the mid-1980s.

He also studies music at the Royal Northern College and at the Hochschule in Berlin. During this period he plays a role in the formation of Factory Classical, a classical offshoot of Factory Records set up under Tony Wilson’s label umbrella.

Arranging work

Metcalfe’s string arrangements for the Duke Quartet appear on recordings by Morrissey, Simple Minds, The Pretenders, Catatonia and Blur. Later, he works on arrangements for Bat For Lashes. He also collaborates extensively with Peter Gabriel on Scratch My Back and New Blood, co-producing the latter with Gabriel. He serves as Gabriel’s music director for live performances including shows at New York’s Radio City and the Hollywood Bowl.

Solo releases

Metcalfe releases The Inner Line, followed by Scorching Bay. A further album, A Darker Sunset, appears on Big Chill Records in 2008. The success of his first two albums of original music leads to new commissions for television and the concert hall.