Gus Gowland

GUS GOWLAND 

Gus is an award-winning composer, lyricist and bookwriter. He is a resident artist at York Theatre Royal and was the Cameron Mackintosh Resident Composer at the National Theatre of Scotland.

His first full-length musical Pieces of String premiered in 2018 at the Mercury Theatre, Colchester. It was The Stage’s ‘Best Regional Musical’ of the year and was nominated for the UK Theatre ‘Best Musical Production’ award. For Pieces of String, Gus won The Stage Debut Award for ‘Best Composer/Lyricist’, and was nominated for the inaugural Writer’s Guild of Great Britain Award for ‘Best Musical Theatre Bookwriting’. Gus’s second full-length original musical, Mayflies, was produced at York Theatre Royal in 2023, to great acclaim and 9 BroadwayWorld nominations. His song cycle Lifeboats, celebrating the LGBTQ+ community, was performed at the Kings Head Theatre in London as part of the MT Pride season in 2023.

Gus wrote the English Book and Lyrics for Brazilian musical Nautopia (Daniel Salve and Alexandre Bissoli) and Korean musicals You and It (EG Musicals) and The Goddess Is Watching (Yeonwoo Theater and ILOVESTAGE). Gus has also written songs for Olivier award-winning theatre collective Duckie, Hull City of Culture and for MADTrust.

Gus is a MGCFutures Bursary recipient and has been shortlisted for the Stiles + Drewe Best New Song Award three times. He has also been shortlisted for the Perfect Pitch Award and the KSF Artists of Choice program. In 2014, Gus was on the UK Jury for the Eurovision Song Contest!