Grant Olding
From his studio between the Black Mountains and the Golden Valley, award-winning composer and lyricist and multi-instrumentalist Grant Olding writes and produces music for television, stage, film and dance. He also works as a vocal and performance coach, and has provided provided song, performance and instrument coaching for James Corden, Anna Friel, Pixie Lott, Martin Freeman, Rufus Hound, Emily Browning, Rory Kinnear, Owain Arthur, Ashley Tisdale and the cast of Upstart Crow over three series.
Selected Credits
Composition highlights in theatre include his many collaborations with Nicholas Hytner both at the Bridge Theatre: “La Belle Sauvage”, “A Christmas Carol”, “Two Ladies”, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, “Alys Always”, ‘Young Marx” and at the National Theatre: “Timon of Athens”, “Travelling Light”, “Great Britain”, “England People Very Nice”, ‘The Alchemist”, “Southwark Fair”, “The Man of Mode” and most famously writing and performing the songs in “One Man Two Guvnors”, the National Theatre’s smash hit comedy starring James Corden, which ran for over three years in the West End and Broadway where Grant was nominated for a Tony Award and won the Drama Desk Award for best music in a play.
Grant has also written many scores for the Royal Shakespeare Company including “The Rover”, “The Fantastic Follies of Mrs Rich”, and “The Hypocrite” as well as “Don Quixote” and “Oppenheimer” which both transferred to the West End.
In 2013, Grant wrote the songs and score for the animated feature film “Saving Santa” starring Martin Freeman and Tim Curry, and for the same creative team in 2021/2022 Grant scored the Warner Brothers’ animated TV series “Moley” starring Warwick Davis, Stanley Tucci, Gemma Arterton and Richard E Grant.
Other television highlights include scoring the Sky film “Christmas Carole” starring Suranne Jones, three series of “Upstart Crow” for the BBC, and two series of “Marley’s Ghosts” for UKTV Gold. He also scored the BBC sitcoms “I Want My Wife Back” and “The Bleak Old Shop Of Stuff”, as well as one-off films “A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong” and “The Pact”.
In 2016, Grant’s first full length dance piece “Jekyll & Hyde” premiered at the Old Vic Theatre, directed and choreographed by Drew McOnie, and in 2021 the pair’s first classical ballet “Merlin” premiered with the Northern Ballet.