Page 778 - Liverpool Philharmonic 22-23 Season Coverage Book

David Suchet as Hercule Poirot in The Dream, a 1989 episode in the Agatha Christie ITV
series. Photograph: ITV

Born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, Christopher was the son of Alexis, a South
African-born pianist and teacher, and Janet (nee Bennett), who had been Alexis’s pupil;
the family later moved to Hendon, north-west London. Growing up with his older
brother and sister in a small semi-detached house surrounded by music, Christopher
began composing at an early age, even before he could properly read music. He was
educated at Hendon County grammar school and went on to study composition, piano
and percussion at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where his tutors
included Sir Richard Rodney Bennett , Edmund Rubbra and the musicologist Brian
Trowell.

Gunning’s broad approach to composition followed Bennett’s example, whose works
included three symphonies and a piano concerto, plus the hugely successful score for
Murder on the Orient Express; he was also a noted jazz pianist. When Gunning was in
his 20s, the pair collaborated on the music for the 1971 film Nicholas and Alexandra.