Tom Smail

Tom Smail (born 1964) is a British composer who lives and works in the United Kingdom.
Career
To commemorate the demise of London's Routemaster Bus in 2005, Smail wrote an orchestral work, Requiem for the Routemaster. The Times called it 'evocative' and it was included in the BBC's flagship Midweek programme.
Smail gained further attention for his Fairy Tales, performed nationally in the UK by the English Touring Opera. In 2005, a CD of two pieces, Red Riding Hood and Sleeping Beauty, narrated by Harry Enfield, was released on Sanctuary Classics.
In August 2013 Smail premiered Soon at Riverside Studios, a chamber opera co-written with his wife Alba Arikha.
Further premieres of his work were featured in Tatler and the Standard in 2013.
In 2014, Smail wrote the music for a Royal Court production, a trilogy of Samuel Beckett plays featuring Lisa Dwan. The production had runs at the Royal Court, The Duchess Theater and the Southbank Centre. This was followed by an international tour which started at BAM and ended at the Barbican.
In January 2015 Love, Loss and Chianti, featuring Christopher Reid and Robert Bathurst, with music for viola and cello by Smail, had a two-week run at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester.
In August 2018 Forgotten Voices of the Great War was performed at the Petworth Festival in August 2018, with text from the eponymous book by Max Arthur.
Tom's second opera, Blue Electric, premièred at the Playground Theatre, Latimer Road in October 2020. ‘I leave this performance in a state of inspiration’, said the Younger Theatre. Directed by Orpha Phelan, it is based on the critically acclaimed fragmented memoir, Major/Minor, by his wife, Alba Arikha. A 40-minute, work-in-progress version of this, directed by Hugh Hudson was performed at the 2018 Tête-à-Tête festival.
His latest piece, Morias, will be premiered at the Pireos building in October 2024.
Smail has also written for film and television. His most recent film, Last Words, directed by Jonathan Nossiter, was selected for the Cannes Film Festival in 2020.
He wrote the music for the 2017 British Museum commissioned documentary on the Japanese artist Hokusai.
Personal life
Smail is married to the writer, Alba Arikha. They live in London.

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