David Snell (born 12 May 1936) is a British harpist, composer and conductor who has worked across a wide range of genres, from jazz, pop and soundtracks through to library music and classical concert works.[1]
Snell was born in Grantham, Lincolnshire and took his first piano lessons there from local teacher Frank Rawle. He played as a pianist with the local Jimmy Carr Orchestra before leaving Grantham for National Service in 1954 with the Royal Artillery Band. He then studied harp with Marie Goossens.[2]
He began his professional career as a harpist with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and later joined the orchestra of the Royal Opera House, while also performing as a freelance harpist for various orchestras and as a session musician. As a jazz harpist he has worked with many jazz musicians (including John Dankworth, Tubby Hayes, Zoot Sims and Kenny Wheeler),[3] and also on film, television and pop music sessions and projects, such as harp on The Incredible String Band's The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter. He featured in regular jazz and light music broadcasts as performer and conductor on BBC radio from the 1960s until the late 1980s.[4]
Meanwhile Snell has maintained his links with the classical music world as conductor and composer. His 1999 CD Women Write Music with the Foundation Philharmonic Orchestra includes performances of works by Doreen Carwithen, Elizabeth Maconchy, Barbara Kolb and Nicola LeFanu.[5] As a concert composer his own works include the Divertimento for Strings (premiered at the Wigmore Hall in 1976),[6] and a Requiem (1996) as well as chamber music[7] and songs for soprano and harp.[1] His Harp Solo Blues has been set as a Grade 7 examination piece by Trinity College London.[8]
Snell has composed and performed extensively for the major library music companies, including KPM Music, Bruton Music, Parry Music, Ring Music (Germany) and Josef Weinberger. A characteristic example is Plucking the Strings from the Bruton library.[9] He has conducted the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestre de Paris, and conducted film scores such as Sun Child (1988, his own music), and films with music composed by Rachel Portman, including Emma (1996), The Cider House Rules (1999), Chocolat (2000), Oliver Twist (2005) and Never Let Me Go (2010). He conducted the premiere recording of Return to the Centre of the Earth (1999) by Rick Wakeman and the London Symphony Orchestra's recording of the video game soundtrack Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness (2003).