Vince Pope

Vince Pope (born Enfield, London) is a British born RTS winning and BAFTA nominated pianist and composer. He has composed the scores for a number of critically acclaimed television and film productions including, Wallander, Misfits, Black Mirror and Undercover. He has also released a number of solo albums for piano, most recently recording “The Fountainhead” in churches around London raising money for the Church Homeless Trust.
== Early Life and Education ==
Vince Pope, the youngest of four boys, was born in Enfield, London. His father, Ray Pope, was born in Grenada and came over to England with the Royal Navy. He was a self-taught jazz pianist who later became band leader for “The Ray Pope Big Band” touring venues up and down the country throughout the 70’s. His mother, Frances Pope, worked in finance for many years for the humanitarian children’s charity “Plan International”.
Pope began his music career at an early age, being spotted playing the piano by BBC producer Ernest Maxin age 11. He was chosen to perform several times on the Les Dawson show, appearing as a Jazz virtuoso alongside The Three Degrees and Liza Minnelli, among others. After completing a maths degree at UCL, Vince returned to his first love of music undertaking a European tour with Midge Ure and later formed his own band which signed to EMI publishing and Food Records.
== Music Career ==
After a short stint with the band Ethereal, who’s first single was produced by John Truelove (producer of Candi Staton’s hit “You got the love”), He co-founded Beetroot Music, producing music for commercials. He worked on various famous and high profile campaigns including Nike, BMW, Guinness and John Smiths, winning awards along the way. 
After a decade of writing for commercials, Pope turned his attention to Television Drama, scoring the music for the critically acclaimed Channel 4 drama “Misfits”. He won the RTS award for best original music for the show in 2011 and also nominated for a British Academy of Film and Television Arts.
He went on to work on a string of high profile dramas including the Hatrick comedy for ITV “Great Night Out” and the “Black Mirror” for Channel 4.
In 2016 he worked on the BBC1 hit “Undercover” starring British singer Sophie Okonedo and scored the Mexican crime fantasy film “Tigers are not afraid” directed by Issa Lopez, which drew praise from the likes of Stephen King and Guillermo Del Torro.
More recently, Pope has worked on series 2 of the sky comedy “Bounty Hunters” and the Channel 4 comedy Series “This Way Up” starring Aisling Bea and Sharon Horgan.
== Solo Releases ==
In 2003 Pope was approached by Virgin Records to release an extended version of the music accompanying the Nintendo Gamecube advertisment. Later that year a 12 inch limited edition vinyl was released which included remixes by Lemon D.
In 2019 he released Messages. The record uses contemporary electronic elements alongside neoclassical forms in addition to vocal samples from Jiddu Krishnamurti, an Indian philosopher and writer. Three of the tracks also include The Bash Chapel Collective, a London based gospel choir that he assembled for the recordings.
In the same year Pope embarked on a project to compose and record solo piano works in churches around London to raise money for The Church Homeless Trust.
In 2020 Pope released a 2 track EP, The Fountainhead.
== Discography – Film and Television Scores ==
* Misfits (Director Tom Green, Tom Harper) (2009-2013)
* Wallander (Director Aisling Walsh) (2010)
* My Angel (Director Stephen Cookson) (2011)
* Bedlam (Director John Strickland) (2011-2012)
* Black Mirror (Director Owen Harris) (2013)
* Great Night Out (Director Elliot Hegarty, Iain B MacDonald) (2013)
* The Psychopath Next Door (Director Kieron Walsh) (2013)
* Bluestone 42 (Director Iain B MacDonald) (2013-2014)
* You, Me and Them (Director Simon Hynd, Ben Gosling Fuller) (2015)
* The Bad Education Movie (Director Elliot Hegarty) (2015)
* The Gamechangers (Director Owen Harris) (2015)
* The Aliens (Director Lawrence Gough, Jonathan van Tulleken) (2016)
* Undercover (Director James Hawes, Jim O’Hanlon) (2016)
* Tschick (Goodbye Berlin) (Director Fatih Akin) (2016)
* Tigers Are Not Afraid (Director Issa Lopez) (2016)
* No Offence (Director Catherine Morshead) (2015-2018)
* Resistance (Director Catherine Morshead) (2019)
* Bounty Hunters (Director William Sinclair) (2017-2019)
* This Way Up (Director Alex Winckler) (2019)
* Maxxx (Director Nick Collett, O-T Fagbenle) (2020)
== Discography – Commercials and others ==
* John Smiths “Penguins” (1997)
* Lynx “House Party” (1996)
* Walkers “Bodyguard” (1998)
* Nike Alpha Project (1999)
* Lego “Box” (1999)
* Nintendo “Cube” (2002)
* Virgin Mobile “Wyclef” (2002)
* Hovis “Robot” (2005)
* Honda “Orpington” (2006)
* Ford Fiesta “Wedding” (2006)
* BBC - BBC2 “Window on the World” Idents (2007-2014)
* Lurpak “Pie” (2010)
* AXA “Sidekick” (2012)
* Jaguar “Life Balanced” (2014)
* Tango “My Love” (2015)
== References ==
== External links ==
* Official website
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* Vince Pope on Soundcloud
Category:1967 births
Category:Pianists
Category:British pianists
Category:English pianists
Category:British male pianists
Category:British composers
Category:British musicians
Category:English musicians