Sutton was born on 15 August 1967 in
Tenterden near
Ashford, Kent. His family then moved to Zimbabwe and later to South Africa where he grew up. Before his success at the National Theatre, Sutton spent 15 years as a composer of "applied music", especially music for television commercials. Sutton was introduced to his brother, the theatre director
Tom Morris. That led to a commission from the National Theatre in 2005 to write the score for
Helen Edmundson's "play with music"
Coram Boy, for which Sutton adapted and extended the music of
Handel. The score for
War Horse two years later is interspersed with simple folk songs on which Sutton collaborated with
John Tams. The orchestral sections combine an English folk idiom (folk songs as the spirit of the village) with symphonic material referencing both English and German traditions, drawing on his interest in English orchestral music of the early and mid-twentieth century (notably
Elgar,
Vaughan Williams and
Walton).
The Curious Incident score of 2011 was influenced by another enthusiasm - the electronic studio music of
Mike Oldfield and
Aphex Twin. Other scores for the National Theatre included
Nation and ''
The Revenger's Tragedy (both 2009), Husbands And Sons
(D. H. Lawrence, adapted by Ben Power, 2015), Rules for Living (2015), and Angels in America (2018). For other theatres Sutton provided music for Cyrano de Bergerac (Bristol Old Vic, 2019), Dr. Semmelweis
(Bristol Old Vic, 2022, adapting Schubert), and Murder On The Orient Express'' (
Chichester, 2022). After his diagnosis, Sutton worked exclusively on concert works. In June 2023 his Violin Concerto and other orchestral pieces, including an extended suite for orchestra constructed from the
War Horse score, were performed at the
Southbank Centre with the
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, soloist
Fenella Humphreys, and subsequently recorded by
Chandos Records. Sutton was married to Matthew Gough, his longtime associate and producer. He died at home on 10 October 2025, at the age of 58. ==List of works==