While still a student, Suckling received commissions from the
Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (
Play, 2005) and the London Symphony Orchestra (
The Moon, the Moon!, 2007). He won the
Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize in 2008, leading to a commission from the Wigmore Hall for the Aronowitz Ensemble (
To See the Dark Between, 2010). In 2011, the
London Sinfonietta commission and premiere of
Candlebird, a song cycle to texts by
Don Paterson, led to critical acclaim. Subsequent commissions have come from ensembles such as the
London Contemporary Orchestra,
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra,
Scottish Ensemble and the
Scottish Chamber Orchestra, with whom Suckling was appointed Associate Composer in 2014. Previously Stipendiary Lecturer in Music at
Somerville College, Oxford, since 2012 Suckling has been a lecturer in the Music Department at the
University of York, where he teaches courses in Composition, Orchestration, and
Spectral Music. Suckling's music often explores aspects of microtonality, and he has acknowledged his debt in this regard to composers associated with spectral music. Other influences include Scottish folk music – Suckling was a fiddle player in several
cèilidh bands in his teens – and literature, especially poetry. In addition to music for the concert hall, Suckling has also composed music designed to be encountered online: these bones, this flesh, this skin, which received a Classical:NEXT Innovation Award in 2021, and the 'game-for-music' Black Fell, an opera / videogame hybrid. ==Key works==