Originally from Northern Ireland, Conor Mitchell began his musical studies on Clarinet. Originally from Northern Ireland, Conor Mitchell trained with the composers David Blake, Nicola Lefanu and Tomas Szemechu. His music for theatre and the concert hall is regularly performed across the UK and Ireland.

He was Principal Clarinettist for the South Ulster Youth Orchestra for several years before transferring to Methodist College, Belfast to study counterpoint and composition with Dr Joe McKee. This led to his first commissions in Ireland for the theatre. He wrote the score to the award winning Irish production of Ghetto at the age of seventeen which led to live scores for Death of a Salesman, Marat / Sade, The Visit and Caucasian Chalk Circle at the Lyric Theatre Belfast. Music for Theatre being his first love, he took a year out to work as an actor-musician in the Lyric Theatre Belfast repertory company.

He went on to train with the composers David Blake (a pupil of Hans Eisler), Nicola Lefanu and the Croatian composer Tomas Szemechu at the University of York, England. He specialised in serial composition and analysis through prime form. Music written at York includes his Concerto for Trombone, Wind Cycles, Sketches for Viola, Persephone  and the brass tone poem Church Goings.

On return to Ireland his entered the world of theatre again writing many scores for the stage. His first full length piece for the musical theatre was the comedy HAVE A NICE LIFE in 2003. This played in Belfast before transferring to Edinburgh, London and finally the University of Arts, Berlin.

His career as a musical theatre writer is balanced with that of a music-theatre facilitator and workshop leader. He helped launch the first workshop programme for the National Youth Music Theatre in Northern Ireland as well as working with the Ulster Youth Theatre, Ulster Association of Youth Drama and the Rainbow Factory as a composer / facilitator.

Other educational work includes numerous workshops and scores for Queens University, Belfast Drama degree course and Belfast Institute of Further Education. He was invited by both of these institutions, in conjunction with the FEST in Naples to lead a course in musical improvisation in Italy in 2004. He was guest pianist for the Royal Ballet and Northern Ballet workshops in Ireland later that year. He also became rehearsal conductor for the Ulster Youth Orchestra, Opera North production of The Elixir of Love the same year.

His major works for the theatre started in 2004 with the Opera Goblin Market (YMT:UK) and the melodrama Todd (Kabosh) which toured Ireland extensively. Since then his interest in the text, music and theatre has grown to become his passion and primary artist field of exploration. He participated in the Bridewell Theatre’s season of new work entitled Creativity Outbreak and wrote a new piece for Greenwich Theatre’s season of new musicals WLTM. The same season included a retrospective of his work entitled Other Women.  In 2004 he was made the first and only life fellow of the Arts Foundation for his work in musical theatre composition by Sir Richard Eyre.

In 2005 his association with the Ulster Youth Orchestra continued with his abstract tone poem NAILS IN HIS EYES conducted by the Russian Vasily Petrenko. His only foray into the world of cinema is the award winning serialist film opera Pretty Face directed by Fintan Brady that same year.

His Belfast social comedy Merry Christmas Betty Ford had a critically acclaimed run at the Lyric Theatre in 2005. This led to a 2006 commission from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, Mathilde, a chamber opera in one act. He is currently working on another commission for LAMDA based on the life of a composer working in the former soviet block. BBC Three aired a programme on his work later earlier that year.

His first piece for the theatre Have a Nice Life was revived in 2006 at the New York Musical Theatre Festival where he was awarded ‘Best Score’. He followed this by a residency at the National Theatre Studio, London developing a new chamber opera based on the politics of Northern Ireland. Later that year he took up the inaugural post of music advisor to Youth Music Theatre UK, a national organisation that encourages the creation of new music theatre for young people of all backgrounds. He has written the musical Missing Melanie for YMT and is currently developing a new dance based project to be performed in Northern Ireland in 2007.

2007 sees his opera for children The Musician opening in Ireland and a benefit concert in Covent Garden to celebrate his work.

He is 29 and lives in London.