It was my great pleasure in 2020 to compose the score for Drew McOnie’s ballet Merlin. Working closely from Drew’s detailed synopsis, I began to imagine the ballet unfolding on stage. As I did, melodies and recurring themes emerged - chunks of musical material that would come to represent characters, emotions and pivotal moments in the scenario. As regular collaborators, Drew and I share a creative language and sensibility, which meant we were almost always instinctively aligned. Dreaming up stories with Drew has always been a complete joy and a blast of creative fresh air.
We travelled to Leeds to workshop early dance and narrative ideas with the Northern Ballet dancers, staging scenes to preliminary demos. During those first few days, we also cast the ballet and got to know the dancers. This proved invaluable for me in the composing process as I could clearly picture the artists who would inhabit Drew’s characters, and understand the physical language they would use to tell the story.
I continued shaping the score while walking the wild hills around the Welsh Marches where I live. Melodies sprung to life, birthed from the gnarly hawthorn branches, while rhythmic ideas formed in counterpoint to my footsteps. Something of that wind-blown, enchanted landscape inevitably found its way into the score.
In 2021, the Northern Ballet Orchestra, under conductor Jonathon Lo, brought the score thrillingly to life. Returning to record it four years later with our wonderful conductor Daniel Parkinson, I was again struck by the extraordinary artistry and care of the musicians, and by the clarity and detail that Daniel drew from the score. I found myself recalling small choreographic moments I had long since forgotten. The score and the ballet - the orchestra and the dancers - remain inextricably intertwined.
It is my hope that, even without seeing the story unfold on stage, you will be able to picture the ballet in your mind’s eye, just as I did when I first sat down to compose - before a dance step had been set.
This recording is dedicated to my father, Frank Olding, who would have loved it.
🔗 in bio
#newmusic #ballet #classicalmusic #theatre #originalsoundtrack
A sneak peak into our rehearsal this week. We're prepped and ready to go for our final gig of 2025 @globeathay on the 14th of December!
Have you got your ticket yet? 👀
#livemusic #seashanty #hayonwye #lovewhereyoulive #wales
In 2023 I wrote a new musical for one man to perform. It’s a portrait of artistic shame and emotional disintegration — an artist haunted by the wrong kind of success, desperate for authenticity but trapped by his own myth. It’s a Sondheim-meets-Bo-Burnham chamber piece about masculinity, ego, and caregiving.
It’s early days, and there’s lots of development to do, but I’m quite proud of it.
It’s now late 2025 and I’ve just started doing a second draft so thought I’d post a video of this re-write of the opening number. Thanks to @katharinemoraz for being the brilliant YouTuber at the end.
Book, music & lyrics by Grant Olding
#newmusic #musicaltheatre #theatre #musicals #singersongwriter #songwriter
The supremely talented @pixielott playing and singing a little country song I wrote back in 2016 for Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
I also had the privilege of having @georgiamay112 and @emilyatack perform this song on tour.
#newmusic #musicaltheatre #theatre
Lyrics - Trad
Music - Grant Olding
Honoured and delighted to have been made an Associate Artist at @the_globe
Some of my very favourite theatre making experiences and proudest moments have been made there. The Comedy of Errors, Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet, and Bartholomew Fair. A magical building with magical people working in it. A place where live music is vital to the theatre making process and musicians are respected and looked after so very very well by @jamesmaloneymusic and @sarahjmillen
“an epic, cinematic score that feels more like a proper all-encompassing soundtrack that bookends or accompanies almost every scene. It’s exquisite.” - Broadwayworld.
“Grant Olding’s music surges through the auditorium, Succession-like in it’s rippling grandeur, ready to propel Nicholas Hytner’s fresh, fleet staging which styles Shakespeare’s tragedy as a gripping modern account of power absolute and abused.” - Financial Times.
“The most compelling quality of the staging - driven on by a Hitchcockian score by Grant Olding - is the way that it treats the unfolding events not as historical inevitability, but as if they are changing moment to moment.” - Whatsonstage.
Now available on Air Edel Records - over 50 minutes of music from Richard II at the Bridge Theatre, directed by Nicholas Hytner, starring Jonathan Bailey.
Available wherever you download or stream your music. Link in bio.
#newmusic #soundtrack #theatre #film #shakespeare #originalsoundtrack
So happy to release @hay_shantymen Christmas single double A side Drunken Santa/We Sail on the Besant Hall record label - part of @airedelmusic
We wrote these two new versions for some Christmas concerts and knowing that they wouldn’t be on next year’s album decided to record and release them in time for Christmas. Two weeks later and here we are. We had a blast recording them at my studio and we can’t wait to get going on the next album. Watch this space.
In the meantime, thanks for being a great audience in 2024 and Merry Christmas!
Download the single anywhere you get your music. Art work by @print_wagon_ #shanties #seashanties #newmusic #christmas #hayonwye
