John Harle's concert music encompasses Opera, Choral, Symphonic and Chamber music. His music is dramatic, accessible and often otherworldly, gaining inspiration from history, folklore and mythic stories.

He has had four commissions from the BBC Proms, including his first Opera, 'Angel Magick', based on the life of Elizabethan alchemist John Dee. His second opera, 'The Ballad of Jamie Allan' was commissioned by the Sage, Gateshead, and was the story of a rogue Northumbrian piper, horse-thief and army deserter.

'Terror and Magnificence' brought many of these historical influences together with vocalist Elvis Costello in a Grammy-nominated album that reached No.1 in the US Billboard charts, and culminated in sell-out concert at the Royal Festival Hall, London.

In recent years, he has composed a rich stream of works, including his saxophone concerto 'The Little Death Machine' (BBC Proms), City Solstice (for Kings College Cambridge Choir) and Earthlight (for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra). He is currently writing 'The Keys of Canterbury' a 45 minute Oratorio for performance in Canterbury Cathedral in 2013.

In music for Film and Television, his name is synonymous with new and innovative musical ideas - vividly intermingling the materials of jazz, rock, classical music, electronics and opera. He has composed over 100 scores including major feature films, television drama and documentaries. He won the Royal Television Society award for Best TV Theme Music for his theme for BBC1's Silent Witness, and his first film score 'Prick Up Your Ears', composed with Stanley Myers, won Best Artistic Achievement in a Feature Film at the Cannes Film Festival.

John is also a conductor, musical director and producer in a variety of fields, covering artists as diverse as Sir Paul McCartney, Elvis Costello, Moondog, Sir John Dankworth and Dame Cleo Laine, Herbie Hancock Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, , Danny Thompson, Stanley Myers, Elmer Bernstein, Ute Lemper, Lesley Garrett and Michael Nyman.

As a conductor, he has worked with the LSO, LPO, BBCSO, BBCPO, RPO, RLPO, RTE, Ulster Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia, the Wintherthur, Lahti, and Norrshirping Symphonies, the New Zealand Chamber Orchestra and the West Australian Symphony Orchestra.

In 1998 he was a castaway on Sue Lawley’s ‘Desert Island Discs’ on Radio 4.

"John served his apprenticeship in the late 20th Century context of expanding horizons and a growing willingness for musicians of all backgrounds to share knowledge. But he is also one of its most innovative contributors".
John Fordham - The Guardian