Russell studied at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester, and then the Royal College of Music in London as a scholar. He is recognised as a leading music-theatre composer, and his critically acclaimed stage works commissioned by English Touring Opera for young audiences have been widely performed. The most successful of these operas, Laika the Spacedog, has been presented across Europe, including an all-new production by the Opera Nouvel in Fribourg, Switzerland, and at the Neue Forum Kunst, Germany. Other operas include The Price, and Ever Young, both for W11 Opera; The Casket Girl for Jubilee Opera; and Moonfleet, The Musical for the Salisbury Playhouse in 2018. Russell’s many choral works are published by Banks Music Publications, Oxford University Press and Stainer & Bell. With acclaimed author Michael Rosen, Russell composed the 2020 set of Friday Afternoons songs commissioned by Britten Pears Arts at Snape Maltings in Suffolk.
Recent stage productions include Climat, an opera in one Act for young performers with libretto by Helen Eastman (Montpellier Opera, February 2023), and The Crash, a new chamber opera for Oldenburg State Theatre, Germany (February 2024). Russell’s latest publication for Stainer & Bell is ‘History Express’, 10 songs for KS2 and KS3 age-group children, set to poems by Helen Eastman, that guide them through history from ‘The Big Bang’ to ‘The World Wide Web’.
(See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIfYVolJtGQ RSNO Children’s Chorus, Patrick Barrett, director; Judith Keaney, piano).
Russell’s grand new choral anthology – Living Voices (SATB + piano) – features ten songs with ten new poems that have been specially commissioned for the project from ten of the UK’s most famous and best-loved living poets. Each piece in the collection will be premiered by a different choir in the UK during Spring and Summer 2025.