Geoff Hannan was born in London, UK, in 1972. He studied composition privately with Michael Finnissy before reading Music at the University of Manchester, graduating in 1993.

From 1997 onward he established an international career as a concert composer. In 1998 he was awarded the Gaudeamus Prize for Rigmarole, his first mature work, and in 2007 the 5th International Marenco Prize for Lifeblood. His music has been performed widely in the UK and internationally, including at Composer Lab (Dublin), the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the London Sinfonietta’s State of the Nation, SOUNDINGS at the Austrian Cultural Forum, the Beijing Modern Music Festival, and broadcast on British, Irish, French and Dutch radio.

His work has been performed by, among others, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Skipton Camerata, the London Sinfonietta, IXION, the Ives Ensemble (Netherlands), CONTINUUM (Canada), EXAUDI Vocal Ensemble, Hard Rain Soloist Ensemble and tenor Andrew Staples. In 2019 he was awarded an Ivor Novello Composer Award for Pocket Universe, which will be released on the NMC label in mid-2026.

Alongside his concert work, Hannan composed music for film and animation, including the multi-award-winning Kahanikar (dir. Nandita Jain) and the BAFTA-nominated short film Take Your Partners (dir. Siri Rodnes). He also worked as orchestrator on the feature films Permanência (dir. Leonardo Lacca) and Miss Christina (dir. Alexandru Maftei), the latter of which won the Gopo Award for Best Original Music Score.

Since 2013 he has taught composition at university and conservatoire level, in addition to working with private pupils in one-to-one settings.

He now works independently as a composer and mentor, focusing on musical craft, reflection, and one-to-one artistic development outside traditional institutional commissioning frameworks. His concert catalogue is represented by Donemus.

Geoff lives in Arizona.

His music is not harmless pastoral panacea or cream cake. It can be a bracing tonic, or open windows onto magical and insane soundscapes — Michael Finnissy