Stephen Gibson was born in London, England in 1957. He studied composition at Birmingham University with John Casken, John Joubert and Bill Hopkins and later at The Banff Centre of Fine Arts, Alberta, Canada with Stephen McNeff.

His music encompasses symphonic and chamber music as well as music theatre and opera. Two works, Sonata in E and Extension 3, were performed at The Huddersfield Festival of contemporary music in 1982 and 1983 respectively. He was commissioned by The Banff Centre in 1983, to write the music for Ghost Town, a two act folk opera to a libretto by Jeremy James Taylor. He was a semi-finalist in the 1997 BBC Masterprize International Composers' Competition with his orchestral work Spirit of Youth which was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and other international radio networks.