artists

“The remarkable young arranger, Callum Au, is already a master.”  The Guardian

www.callumaumusic.com

“The piano concerto is full of detail and deftness. Sophia Rahman, known for her deep velvet playing in late-Romantic music, shows that she can be just as articulate when adopting a more brittle and brilliant style”.  The Daily Telegraph

Sophia Rahman made the first UK recording of  Florence Price’s piano concerto with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, broadcast on BBC Radio 3. She has recorded Shostakovich’s piano concerto Op. 35 with the Scottish Ensemble for Linn Records and over thirty-five chamber music discs for a host of international labels including CPO, Guild, Resonus, Dutton/Epoch, ASV and Champs Hill.

Sophia has appeared in recital with distinguished musicians including cellist Steven Isserlis, violinist Augustin Hadelich, oboist Alex Klein, clarinettist Karl Leister and tenor Mark Padmore, as well as working frequently with her partner the violinist, violist and conductor Andres Kaljuste.

Sophia has coached junior chamber music at the Sibelius Academy, Finland and Lilla Akademien, Sweden, and on courses she has specially designed at the Arvo Pärt Centre for young Estonian chamber musicians and for those entering the brand new Tallinn Music and Ballet School. She is also known for her work as a class pianist at IMS Prussia Cove where she has played for the classes of Kim Kashkashian, Atar Arad, Thomas Riebl, Hartmut Rohde and, for more than a decade, Steven Isserlis. Her interest in this field began as a class pianist for the legendary William Pleeth at the Britten-Pears School.

After early tuition with Antonietta Notariello, Sophia studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School under Peter Norris, with additional guidance from Vlado Perlemuter and Louis Kentner.

She took a first-class honours degree in English from King’s College, London and completed her piano studies at the Royal Academy of Music with Alexander Kelly and Malcolm Martineau.

She was the winner of the Royal Overseas League’s Accompanist Award and the Liza Fuchsova Memorial Prize for a chamber music pianist in consecutive years.

Sophia is the Artistic Director of the Whittington Festival in Shropshire.

www.whittingtonmusicfestival.org.uk

“…a really fascinating strata of musical experience…” What’s On

The Mikeleiz-Zucchi Duo is a London–based ensemble formed by Canadian saxophonist David Zucchi and Spanish accordionist Iñigo Mikeleiz-Berrade. Winners of the Royal Over-Seas League Annual Music Competition’s Mixed Ensemble Prize and City Music Foundation Artists, the Mikeleiz-Zucchi Duo’s repertoire spans everything from reimagined traditional works to modern repertoire and improvisation, all vividly rendered by the unique combination of saxophone and accordion. 

After their debut concert at the Vale de Cambra Classical Music Festival (Portugal) in 2019, the duo has performed across the UK and Europe, including appearances at Wigmore Hall, Edinburgh Fringe, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Barnes Music Festival, Newbury Spring Festival, Music@Malling, Rye Arts Festival, Buxton International Festival, the Rosengart Museum (Lucerne), St. George’s Bristol, and the Daylight Music series (Union Chapel, London). They have appeared on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune with Sean Rafferty, and were 2023 residents at Music at Brel (Roquecor, France). The duo is dedicated to the generation of new repertoire for their instrumentation, and have collaborated with composers including Robin Haigh, Aileen Sweeney, Roxanna Alabayati, Michael Hughes, and Alex Paxton. New commissions and projects for the duo have been supported by the Marchus Trust, City Music Foundation, the RPS Susan Bradshaw Composers’ Fund, the Nicholas Boas Charitable Trust, and the Vaughan Williams Foundation.

Individually, Iñigo and David have distinguished themselves as award-winning interpreters of classical, improvised, contemporary and experimental music.

“The performances are absolutely wonderful…stylish virtuosity…instinctive brilliance.” BBC Radio 3 Record Review 

Shortlisted for the 2016 Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards, The Fidelio Trio broadcast regularly on BBC Radio 3, RTÉ Lyric FM, WQXR, and
have been featured on a Sky Arts documentary.

Since their debut at London’s Southbank Centre, they have regularly appeared at the Wigmore Hall and Kings Place, at festivals including Spitalfields, Cheltenham, St.
Magnus and Huddersfield. In Ireland they regularly perform at National Concert Hall, Dublin, Kilkenny Festival and Belfast Festival as well as Shanghai Oriental Arts Centre,
Beijing Modern Music Festival, Hong Kong Chamber Music Society, Singapore, Bangkok, Porto, Paris, Venice, Florence, Johannesburg, Harare, New York City, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Boston.

Their 2023/24 season includes performances at Dark Music Days Iceland, an extensive USA tour including National Sawdust New York and Andy Warhol Museum Pittsburgh, Les Jardins Musicaux Neuchâtel and Hay Festival.

Their extensive discography includes a Gramophone Magazine Editor’s Choice and Critics’ Choice 2022 of Chamber Music by E J Moeran, a composer with whom they are closely associated and the release of premiere recordings on Mode Records of music by Gerald Barry. 2024 saw a portrait CD of distinguished composer Xiaogang Ye. Other significant releases include 2 French albums of Ravel and Saint-Saëns, Fauré, Chausson and Satie; Philip Glass Head On & Pendulum on Orange Mountain; Korngold and Schoenberg (Verklärte Nacht arr. Steuermann) for Naxos; the complete Michael Nyman Piano Trios for MN Records; multiple releases on NMC, Delphian Records including portrait CDs for composers such as Luke Bedford, Piers Hellawell and Michael Zev Gordon. Their previous release of French Piano Trios for Resonus was also a Gramophone Magazine Editor’s Choice.

The Fidelio Trio have given masterclasses at Peabody Conservatory, Curtis Institute, NYU, Central Conservatory Beijing, and Stellenbosch Conservatorium South Africa. They have been artists-in-residence at St. Patrick’s College Dublin City University, University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, the State University of New York, SUNY
and Tufts University, Boston.

Composers that the Trio have premiered music by include Anna Clyne, Toshio Hosokawa, Charles Wuorinen, Johannes Maria Staud, Michael Nyman, Gerald Barry, Donnacha Dennehy, Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, Joe Cutler, Ann Cleare, Judith Weir, David Fennessy, Kevin Volans. Gavin Higgins, Linda Buckley, Tom Coult, John Harbison, Sam Perkin, Sebastian Adams, Claudia Molitor, Shirley Thompson, Richard Baker, Robert Saxton, Simon Bainbridge and Alexander Goehr.

Artists the Fidelio Trio have performed with include Nicholas Daniel (oboe), Michael Collins and Julian Bliss (clarinet), Richard Watkins (horn), Joan Rodgers and Patricia Rozario (soprano), Rachel Roberts (viola), author Alexander McCall Smith, T.S. Eliot prizewinning poet Sinéad Morrissey and actor Adrian Dunbar. They have developed work in collaboration with Rambert Dance Company and feature in the film of Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Sea of Troubles with Yorke Dance Project.

They often perform Beethoven’s Triple Concerto including recently with KZN Philharmonic Orchestra, South Africa and National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland with conductor Thomas Kemp and are Artistic Directors of their annual Winter Chamber Music Festival at Belvedere House, Dublin City University.

“…filigree or glitter, arpeggios or runs, virtuosity or sheer feeling, Webb is master of them all.” The Gramophone

Hugh has worked extensively in the contemporary music field and Javier Alvarez, Robert Keeley, Paul Archbold and Ian Dearden have all written solo works for him, with funding from The Arts Council of England. Classical CD recordings include Bax’s Concerto for Flute, Oboe and Harp with the Academy of St. Martin’s Chamber Ensemble (Chandos), a collection of Bach Flute Sonatas (Guild), Villalobos’ Quartet (Clarinet Classics), Bax’s Fantasy Sonata (Koch International) and the complete Spohr Violin and Harp Sonatas (Naxos).  His most recent recordings are a CD of French Renaissance songs with the medieval group, Joglaresa and a recording of solo and chamber music by Nino Rota for Zitto Records. 

From 2001 to 2012, Hugh Webb was principal harp of the Philharmonia Orchestra and now freelances as guest principal of the major London orchestras and is active in the film and television music worlds.

Hugh has composed a show for children based on Hans Christian Anderson’s The Snow Queen.

“One cannot ignore the immensely intelligent and impeccably placed keyboard continuo work of Steven Devine.” International Record Review

Steven Devine combines a career as a conductor and director of orchestral, choral and opera repertoire with that of a solo harpsichordist and fortepianist. He is Conductor and Artistic Advisor of The English Haydn Festival; Music Director of New Chamber Opera, Oxford and Director of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment’s “Bach the Universe & Everything” series.

On the concert platform he has directed Purcell, Blow, Bach, Handel and Mozart with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment; Bach Easter Oratorio with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales;  Haydn, Handel, CPE Bach, JC Bach, Dittersdorf and Viotti with the English Haydn Orchestra; Handel, Vivaldi and Porpora with Ann Hallenberg and Trondheim Barokk;  Bach Christmas Oratorio with the Norwegian Wind Ensemble; Handel Solomon with Victoria Baroque Players, British Columbia and Handel Music for the Royal Fireworks  with Arion Baroque Ensemble, Montreal; He has also directed programmes with the Academy of Ancient Music, Academie d’Ambronay, the Mozart Festival Orchestra and St Paul’s Chamber Orchestra,

Devine’s opera repertoire includes works by Purcell, Cavalli, Handel, Haydn and Mozart as well as rarities by Galuppi, Salieri and Cimarosa. His recordings include Dido & Aeneas with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Sarah Connolly in the title role. 

As a keyboard player, he is the Principal Keyboard Player with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and also the principal keyboard player for The Gonzaga Band, The Mozartists and performs regularly with many other groups around Europe. He has recorded over forty discs with other artists and ensembles and made many solo recordings. His recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations (Chandos Records) has received critical acclaim – including Gramophone magazine describing it as “among the best”. The complete harpsichord works of Rameau (Resonus) has received five-star reviews from BBC Music Magazine. Steven has recently completed recording the complete harpsichord works of Johann Ludwig Krebs, Bach’s favourite student and is about to embark on solo music by CPE and WF Bach.

Steven Devine was educated at Chetham’s School of Music before reading Music at St Peter’s College, Oxford. He was Director of Opera Restor’d from 2002-2010 and Kurator and Conductor of the Norwegian Wind Ensemble from 2016-2018. 

“Technically astonishing, eclectic in repertoire and prepared to explode cliches of what brass chamber music should sound like.” The Artsdesk

Winners of the Inaugural Philip Jones International Brass Ensemble Competition and the Royal Overseas League Competition, Connaught Brass seek to redefine how brass chamber music is perceived. Blending a deep respect for the genre’s rich heritage with a fresh, youthful perspective, their performances are not only marked by vibrance and boldness, but with warmth and approachability, reflecting the strong camaraderie at the heart of the ensemble. Through brand-new commissions, audience-favourite arrangements and a commitment to originality, Connaught Brass breathe new life into tradition, offering a unique and engaging concert experience with the ultimate goal of bringing brass chamber music to the forefront of today’s musical world.

The Connaughts have shared their music-making widely across the UK and Europe at venues including London’s Wigmore Hall, the Lucerne Festival, De Doelen Rotterdam, Societá Filarmonica Trento, Snape Maltings, Kings Place, St George’s Bristol, Hidden Doors Arts Festival Edinburgh and Music for Wexford Ireland. Additional highlights include performing live on radio from the Concertgebouw’s Spiegelzaal and regularly on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune programme. The 24/25 season will see the group make debut performances at the Barbican Centre in London and in Wales at Cowbridge Music Festival, return to Ferrandou Musique Festival in France and undertake an exciting collaboration project with pianist Zeynep Özsuca, alongside an extensive performance schedule across the rest of the UK.

In previous years, the quintet have become artists of the Tillett Trust, City Music Foundation, Kirckman Concert Society and Britten Pears Chamber Music Residency. They also take great pride in undertaking masterclasses at conservatoires and education work in primary and secondary schools across the UK and Europe, including that supported by the Cavatina Chamber Music Trust and the Musicians Company.

Having been principal players and members of the European Union Youth Orchestra, Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, and National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, members of Connaught Brass perform regularly on the professional orchestral circuit. They have performed with prestigious orchestras and companies, including the London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Sinfonia of London, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Royal Opera House, English National Opera, English National Ballet, Opera North, Welsh National Opera, and Ulster Orchestra. In addition to their classical work, they are also in high demand commercially, collaborating with high-profile artists such as Stormzy, Jamie Cullum, Bruno Mars, Florence and the Machine, Alison Sudol, and Cody Fry.

“…Electra Mourns stole the show as a moving study of madness and remorse.” The Daily Telegraph

Bombay was Brian Elias’s first home; he lived there until he was sent to school in England at the age of thirteen. By then he had already composed a fair amount – or rather improvised, as it was not until the need arose to make parts for school performances that Elias began properly writing his ideas down. He still has fond memories of a youthful Flute Sonata and a music-theatre piece based on Mr. James’ ghost story Lost Hearts.

In 1966 he entered the Royal College of Music, officially studying composition under Humphrey Searle and Bernard Stevens, though it was the experience of ‘moonlighting’ with the composer Elisabeth Lutyens he found most stimulating. Under Lutyens’s influence, Elias produced a Webern-like cantata La Chevelure, which made a promisingly positive impression at its first hearing in 1968. After leaving the RCM, Elias spent a few years in New York where he studied briefly at the Juilliard School, New York.

On his return to England he produced a modest number of small-scale works, culminating in the unaccompanied choral Proverbs of Hell, based on William Blake. This and a revival of La Chevelure gave Elias the confidence to tackle larger-scale structures.

The first significant product was Somnia (‘Dreams’, 1979) for tenor and orchestra, based on words by the hedonistic Roman writer Petronius, followed in 1982 by the song cycle At the Edge of Time. Then in L’Eylah (1983), he at last felt free to write a large, abstract orchestral work. L’Eylah was greeted with enthusiasm by audience and critics at its BBC Proms premiere in 1984. By now the broad features of Elias’s mature style were fully in focus. A fastidious and imaginative craftsman, he was also beginning to show the impassioned urgency and capacity for sustained compelling invention that remain evident in his work to this day.

Geranos for chamber ensemble (1985) confirmed his growing confidence and mastery, as did Variations for solo piano of 1987 (composed in homage to Beethoven’s 32 Variations in C minor) and the vividly atmospheric Pythikos Nomos (‘The Law of the Python’, 1987-8) for alto saxophone and piano. But even these were surpassed by Elias’s next major work, an orchestral song cycle Five Songs to Poems by Irina Ratushinskaya (1989), commissioned by the BBC. The dark intensity and lyrical eloquence of Elias’s settings fully matched the power of the Soviet dissident Ratushinskaya’s poetry. It is an extraordinary demonstration of creative empathy from a composer brought up under very different political conditions, at the same time showing Elias’s exceptional skill in finding and responding to the musical qualities of the Russian language. Five Songs to Poems by Irina Ratushinskaya was such a success at its London premiere that it was toured by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and repeated at the 1991 BBC Proms.

Then in 1992 came one of Elias’ greatest successes, The Judas Tree, a riveting forty-minute score written for the Royal Ballet and choreographed by Sir Kenneth MacMillan, with designs by Jock MacFadyen. The Judas Tree has remained securely in the Royal Ballet’s repertory, and it has been taken on tour to France, Germany, Russia and the USA. Although written to be danced, The Judas Tree is scarcely less impressive performed purely as an orchestral work. Not only is the material strong and vibrant, the score is proof of Elias’s capacity to sustain a gripping musical narrative over a long time scale.

For all his achievement as a composer of large-scale works, Elias has not forgotten his early liking for music of a more intimate scale and manner. Two of his most recent successes include Three Songs (2003) on poems by Christina Rossetti for alto voice and harp, and a piece for solo clarinet, Birds Practise Songs in Dreams (2004).

Elias has never been a prolific composer, and all his work – from ambitious orchestral scores to the tiniest instrumental pieces – is executed with meticulous care. Yet the result is music that never sounds merely ‘careful’. The House That Jack Built is bold, dazzlingly inventive and full of dancing energy. Elias’s basing of much of the material for The House That Jack Built (2001) on perhaps the simplest and most memorable of all playground chants also means that one doesn’t need a degree in musicology to follow its many ingenious developments – the process is clear for anyone who has ears to hear.

In 2004 Elias was commissioned by the Cheltenham Festival to write A Talisman, which was performed by the National Youth Orchestra Sinfonietta and Paul Putnins, and scored for bass-baritone and small orchestra. It is based upon Hebrew text inscribed on a silver 19th century amulet which was given to Elias by his late mother.

Elias is the recipient of two British Composer Awards: the first in 2010 for the orchestral work Doubles, which was commissioned by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the second in 2013, for Electra Mourns. This piece, a setting of Sophocles in ancient Greek, was written for Susan Bickley (mezzo soprano) and Nicholas Daniel (cor anglais) and first performed with the Britten Sinfonia at the BBC Proms in 2012. Elias’ String Quartet, composed in 2012 for the Jerusalem String Quartet, was premiered at Wake Forest University in North Carolina in 2013. The piece was performed and broadcast by the EBU at the Zeist Festival in Holland in 2014 and received its London premiere at the Wigmore Hall in 2015.

In spring 2017 a recording of Geranos, Electra Mourns and Elias’ vocal music was released on the NMC label. The release coincided with the premiere of his Oboe Quintet by Nicholas Daniel and members of Britten Sinfonia. Leonard Elschenbroich and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales gave the premiere of his Cello Concerto at the 2017 BBC Proms. The following autumn The Royal Ballet staged a revival of The Judas Tree as part of its Kenneth MacMillan anniversary celebrations. In 2025, his Horn Concerto written for Ben Goldscheider was premiered at the Aldeburgh Festival with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sakari Oramo.

© Stephen Johnson – updated by Brian Elias

www.brianelias.co.uk

“Stevie Wishart’s Eurostar: A journey in sound between cities (2016), the evening’s most experimental work, explored improvisation using vocalise, with whooshes, whines and a whole variety of modern loco impressions: motion in poetry.” The Guardian

Stevie Wishart is a composer, performer and improviser. She explores medieval and contemporary extremes, using voices, ancient technologies such as the hurdy gurdy, and electronic music technologies of our own time.

Stevie’s music explores medieval and contemporary extremes, using voices, ancient technologies such as the hurdy-gurdy, and emerging technologies of today. She studied composition at York University with Trevor Wishart, improvised and aleatoric music with John Cage in Edinburgh, postgraduate studies in early music (violin and voice) at the Guildhall, London and with a Vicente Cañada Blanch JRF at New College, University of Oxford, and through many collaboration.

She has composed for modern orchestras and vocal groups and for her own group, Sinfonye. As a composer she works acoustically with music notation, sometimes combined with improvisation, sometimes using computer music systems, and sometimes using all these elements.

The challenge of creating music for a wide range of contexts is important, such as composing for productions by Michèle Noiret (Théâtre National de Bruxelles) and Wayne McGregor, a large-scale choral work for a Proms commission with the BBC Singers & Sinfonye, and for the designer Philippe Starck. With the support of a Visiting Music Fellowship at the University of Cambridge she is currently composing a Double-Bass Concerto for the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, London.

Exploring music’s unique ability to express new ideas on a level which transcends other routes of communication motivates her work as a composer (and improviser).

Stevie Wishart studied composition and electronic music at the University of York with Trevor Wishart and Richard Orton, as well as improvised and aleatoric music with John Cage and David Tudor in Edinburgh. She continued postgraduate performance studies in early music (baroque violin and voice) at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (Diploma in Advanced Performance) and with a Nuffield Foundation award and a Vicente Cañada Blanch Junior Research Fellowship at the University of Oxford (Degree of MLitt) for research into medieval musical iconography.

Invited for a number of composer residences and fellowships, she has presented her work at IRCAM in Paris; the Institute for Music and Acoustics in the ZKM (Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie) in Karlsruhe, Germany; the ADK, Akademie der Künste, in Berlin, and Mills College in California. She received a Wellcome Trust award to develop her compositions using musical gestures and sound-to-control computers, and to work at the University of Cambridge with the neuroscientist Ian Winter on audio processes based on the physiology of the ear.

She is currently a Visiting Music Fellow at the University of Cambridge with the AHRC Research Centre for Musical Performance as Creative Practice (CMPCP).

​Stevie Wishart’s Cantata for the Seasons was given its world premiere at Snape Maltings in April 2014. Other major projects include a Concerto Grosso, a double bass concerto, commissioned for the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, which premiered at London’s Southbank Centre, a solo piece for piano for Joanna MacGregor, a choral piece for Ex Cathedra, and a new piece for the Dunedin Consort for the 2019 BBC Proms.

“I cannot imagine a living pianist capable of improving upon Donohoe’s outstanding artistry.” Musical Opinion

Peter Donohoe was born in Manchester in 1953. He studied at Chetham’s School of Music for seven years, graduated in music at Leeds University, and went on to study at the Royal Northern College of Music with Derek Wyndham and then in Paris with Olivier Messiaen and Yvonne Loriod. He is acclaimed as one of the foremost pianists of our time, for his musicianship, stylistic versatility and commanding technique.

In recent seasons Donohoe has appeared with Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic and Concert Orchestra, Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, St Petersburg Philharmonia, RTE National Symphony Orchestra, Belarusian State Symphony Orchestra, and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He has undertaken a UK tour with the Russian State Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as giving concerts in many South American and European countries, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Russia, and USA. Other past and future engagements include performances of all three MacMillian piano concertos with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra; a ‘marathon’ recital of Scriabin’s complete piano sonatas at Milton Court; an all-Mozart series at Perth Concert Hall; concertos with the Moscow State Philharmonic Orchestra, St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra and the London PhilharmonicOrchestra at Royal Festival Hall; and a residency at the Buxton International Festival.

Donohoe is also in high demand as a jury member for international competitions. He has recently served on the juries at the International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow (2011 and 2015), Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels (2016), Georges Enescu Competition in Bucharest (2016), Hong Kong International Piano Competition (2016), Harbin Competition (2017 and 2018), Artur Rubenstein Piano Master Competition (2017), Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition and Festival (2017), Alaska International e-Competition (2018), Concours de Geneve Competition (2018), Ferrol Piano Competition (2022), and Hong Kong International Piano Competition (2022), along with many national competitions both within the UK and abroad.

Donohoe’s most recent discs include Taneyev & Schumann: Piano Quintets with Signum, Granados & Albeniz with Chandos, and a selection of waltzes of Ravel, Schumann, Debussy & Chopin with SOMM. Other recent recordings include six volumes of Mozart Piano Sonatas (SOMM), Haydn Keyboard Works Volume 1 (Signum), Grieg Lyric Pieces Volume 1 (Chandos), Dora Pejacevic Piano Concerto (Chandos), Brahms and Schumann viola sonatas with Philip Dukes (Chandos), and Busoni: Elegies and Toccata (Chandos), which was nominated for BBC Music Magazine Award. Donohoe has performed with all the major London orchestras, as well as orchestras from across the world: the Royal Concertgebouw, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Munich Philharmonic, Swedish Radio, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Vienna Symphony and Czech Philharmonic Orchestras. He has also played with the Berliner Philharmoniker in Sir Simon Rattle’s opening concerts as Music Director. He made his twenty-second appearance at the BBC Proms in 2012 and has appeared at many other festivals including six consecutive visits to the Edinburgh Festival, La Roque d’Anthéron in France, and at the Ruhr and Schleswig Holstein Festivals in Germany.

The 23/24 season kicked off with Peter Donohoe performing as a soloist with the London Symphony Orchestra and Simon Rattle with four performances of Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie in London, Edinburgh, and Bucharest.

Following a March 2024 South American tour, recent and upcoming highlights of the 2024/25 season include performances with the Symphony Orchestra of India, George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra in Bucharest, and Vox Ama Deus in Philadelphia, US.

“Ana Maria Pacheco’s sculptures are powerful and haunting.  Vibrant in colour and message they resonate across the centuries, bearing witness to our humanity in all its brutality and grace. The works are iconographic: familiar and strange, disturbing and astoundingly beautiful.”  Julian Bell

Ana Maria Pacheco is a sculptor, painter, and printmaker. She creates powerful and sometimes disturbing work in which death, magic and sexuality are important elements. Throughout her career, Pacheco has explored tensions in her own identity, drawing on history, myth, and folklore.

Born in the West Central region of Brazil, she first trained as a concert pianist before studying art and music at the University of Goiás (1960–4.) After completing her studies, Pacheco reacted strongly against European modernism, which most Brazilian artists were engaged with at the time, embracing a wider range of influences including polychrome baroque sculpture and African ritual masks. In 1973, a British Council Scholarship enabled her to move to London, studying at the Slade School of Art. She has lived in the UK ever since, developing a rich body of work that maintains links to multiple artistic and literary traditions.

From 1997 to 2000 Ana Maria Pacheco was Associate Artist at the National Gallery London – she was the first non-European and the first sculptor to take up this appointment, which culminated in a major exhibition of her work. 

During her time at the National Gallery, Pacheco did not search the collection for compositions or other formal devices that she could use in her work. Instead, she concentrated on the subjects and themes that artists had dealt with, filtering them through her own cultural background and experience. Pacheco was particularly interested in the story of Saint Sebastian, a Roman soldier martyred by Emperor Diocletian in the 3rd century AD, who is often depicted in National Gallery paintings.

Towards the end of her residency, Pacheco created a multi-figured polychrome sculpture entitled ‘Dark Night of the Soul’, which consisted of over twenty carved figures. This work was inspired by Antonio and Piero del Pollaiuolo’s painting The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian (about 1475), which she chose because of its resemblance to a photograph of an executed Brazilian bandit. Establishing a connection between the martyrdom of a revered saint and the unknown victim of a death squad, Pacheco intended to draw attention to the universal issue of the abuse of power.

Ana Maria Pacheco: New Painting and Sculpture – an exhibition of artworks that the artist produced during her time at the Gallery was held in the Sunley Room at the National Gallery between 29 September 1999 and 9 January 2000. For Pacheco’s exhibition, the gallery space was divided in two. The first half of the space was hung with several large paintings, including ‘Luz Eterna’ (1999), an atmospheric triptych based on the story of the Temptation of Saint Anthony, and a depiction of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba in the Garden of Earthly delights. The second half of the exhibition was darkly lit, featuring Pacheco’s multi-figure installation ‘Dark Night of the Soul’ (1999). The exhibition subsequently toured regional museums across England between late January 2000 and January 2001.

In 1999, Pacheco was awarded the prestigious Ordem do Rio Branco by the Brazilian government. She was made a Fellow of University College London in 2003 and has twice participated in the Galway International Festival in 2017 and 2022. Her work is held in collections internationally and frequently exhibited in solo and group exhibitions

In 2024, her series of friezes Be Aware were part of an installation at Ightham Mote with music composed by John Woolrich.

In 2025, The Enchanted Garden explores her paintings with music by Zöe Martlew.

www.anamariapacheco.co.uk

“…superbly conveyed by Thomas Kemp who conducts with unerring perfection.” Musicweb

Thomas Kemp is an acclaimed conductor and artistic director renowned for his passionate advocacy and ground breaking programming that places contemporary music into its historical context. The Guardian recently commented “…an extraordinary performance… with a fluency that came over brilliantly under the baton of Thomas Kemp.”

Thomas is regularly in demand as a guest conductor in the UK and Europe. Recent and forthcoming engagements include concerts with BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, RTE National Symphony Orchestra, Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Fretwork and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

Thomas is the Music Director of Chamber Domaine, which is at the forefront of ensembles focusing on 20th and 21st century music. He regularly conducts Chamber Domaine in festivals and concert series in the UK, Europe and North America.  In 2022, the ensemble received five star reviews in the national press for Six Brandenburgs: Six Commissions – giving world premieres of new works by Brian Elias, Michael Price, Deborah Pritchard, Daniel Kidane, Joseph Phibbs and Stevie Wishart alongside the Brandenburg Concertos.  

The Artsdesk described the concerts as “metaphysical brilliance…a colossal achievement made up of seemingly effortless and joyous playing meeting with an equally joyous audience response.” The Observer described the performances as “superbly performed.” Musical Opinion praised the concerts as “a true continuation of the energising, restorative effect of Bach’s music, crisply and spontaneously rendered by members of Chamber Domaine under Thomas Kemp’s alert direction.” 

Six Brandenburgs: Six Commissions will be toured to festivals and concert series in the UK and Europe including Wigmore Hall in June 2025.

In June 2023, Chamber Domaine premiered  new works by composer Deborah Pritchard in a series of immersive concerts featuring art by Maggi Hambling CBE and Marc Chagall. In 2024, they premiered new works inspired by Bach by Luke Styles, Aaron Holloway Naham and Florence Anne Maunders.

Thomas is the Artistic Director and Founder of Music@Malling which brings world-class music to people’s doorsteps through concerts and outreach.  Music@Malling has an annual festival held each September and a summer series held in historic venues in and around West Malling, Kent.  Music@Malling has year around outreach which engages hundreds of people in creative activities and reaches many people who would not otherwise engage with the arts.  Acclaimed for its innovative programming, Music@Malling promotes contemporary music alongside classical and jazz. Featured composers in 2025 include Brian Elias, Deborah Pritchard, Zöe Martlew and David Lang.  Music@Malling was featured in The Guardian – 10 Best Concerts and Operas of 2022.

Thomas has an award winning discography with Resonus and Signum Records.  His recent recording Strata featuring the works of Eleanor Alberga with the BBC Symphony Orchestra received outstanding five star reviews.  His recordings of music by Brian Elias were Editor’s Choice in The Gramophone: “The finest album of contemporary music in 2024.”

An acclaimed exponent of late nineteenth and early 20th century repertoire, recent engagements include groundbreaking concerts in the UK and Asia with The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment conducting the 1925 film version of Strauss – Der Rosenkavalier.  The critical edition he prepared for these performances is published by Schott and will be recorded by Chamber Domaine on period instruments in November 2023 for Resonus.

Thomas was a featured artist at the Oxford Lieder Festival conducting Mahler and Strauss with  outstanding vocalists Toby Spence, Dietrich Henschel and Louise Alder. The Spectator commented “It’s supremely, exhaustingly virtuosic writing…the OAE conducted by Thomas Kemp gave their all…” Seen and Heard praised the performances for their “marvellous sweep.”

Other recent highlights include a tour of Ireland with the Fidelio Trio and the RTE National Symphony Orchestra and conducting world premieres of Mark-Anthony Turnage – Concertino and Howard Skempton – Hinterland with The Birmingham Contemporary Music Group.

Thomas made his operatic debut in a new production of Cosi fan tutte for Opera Holland Park with the City of London Sinfonia to widespread praise. “Cosi fan tutte was conducted with real shape and nuance by Thomas Kemp…Altogether this was the most original and idiomatic attempt on this ungraspable work London has seen in a long time” Opera Now.

From 1989-92, Thomas read music at St.Catharine’s College, Cambridge and went on to study violin and chamber music at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester where from 2000-2014 he worked as a professor. He has given masterclasses, conducted and coached ensembles in conservatoires and universities worldwide.

From 2003-2007,  he studied conducting at the Royal College of Music, Stockholm with Jorma Panula, Paul Mägi and Alan Gilbert sponsored by The Swedish Academy.

Thomas has enjoyed an international career as a soloist, concertmaster, and chamber musician with many renowned orchestras and ensembles and has led many recording sessions for TV and film in London. The Strad recently commented: “He displays a remarkable variety of tone in playing that’s lyrical yet assertive, and there’s a real sense of sincerity to his glowing interpretations.”

“A virtuoso stunt of technique and imagination…exuberant commitment.” The Times

Under its artistic director, Thomas Kemp, Chamber Domaine has become internationally recognised for its virtuosity and its ambitious and distinctive approach to programming – illuminating the music of the 20th and 21st Centuries. A project based orchestra, its programmes feature outstanding musicians that bring passion and commitment to a diverse repertoire that makes the music of today come alive whilst placing it into its historical context. In a recent review The Times praised the ensemble for its “superb artistry.”

​Chamber Domaine has worked with many renowned contemporary composers and has given World and territorial premieres in numerous concerts and recordings that span nearly two decades including highly acclaimed recordings of Mark-Anthony Turnage, Ned Rorem, Judith Bingham, Arvo Part, Jean Sibelius, Benjamin Britten, Frank Bridge and Mozart.  Forthcoming releases include recordings of Brian Elias for Signum and Richard Strauss for Resonus.

The ensemble regularly collaborates with leading figures from across the arts world to create unique and culturally significant events.

​A trailblazing ensemble, Chamber Domaine are in demand at leading festivals and concerts series in the United Kingdom, Europe and North America including Brighton, Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, City of London, Edinburgh, Brighton Festivals and have regularly appeared at The Wigmore Hall and Southbank Centre. The ensemble has developed groundbreaking residencies at The Victoria and Albert Museum, The Imperial War Museum, The Arnold Schoenberg Centre, Vienna, Gresham College, London and Bargemusic, New York.

​Since 2011, Chamber Domaine has been the resident ensemble for Music@Malling giving concerts and delivering a year-around outreach programme that has engaged thousands of young people from across Kent in creative activities – building audiences from scratch and introducing new music to new audiences.

In April 2022, Chamber Domaine performed Six Brandenburgs: Six Commissions with new works by Brian Elias, Deborah Pritchard,  Stevie Wishart, Joseph Phibbs, Michael Price and Daniel Kidane.  The performances received 5 star reviews in the national press and were described as “metaphysical brilliance'” by The Artsdesk.

In 2025, Chamber Domaine repeated the programme with additional new works by Luke Styles, Aaron Holloway-nahum and Florence Ann Maunders at Wigmore Hall.

​With its innovative programming, collaborations, outreach and recording, Chamber Domaine is in the vanguard of music-making today: a flexible and dynamic ensemble that brings music alive and creates new audiences.

“Music that rises to a plangent emotional peak.” The Wall Street Journal

Composer, cellist, performer, cabaret artist, educator, mentor, curator, media commentator and concert narrator, the increasingly un-categorisable Zoë Martlew travels the world in a variety of all those roles, as solo performer and with some of the world’s most renowned contemporary music ensembles, chamber groups, improvisation, film, electronica, multi-media, pop, rock, dance and theatre companies, including Ensemble Modern, London Sinfonietta, Royal Ballet, National Theatre, Grossman Ensemble (US), Colin Currie Group.

She’s given countless world premiere performances at notable new music festivals including Aldeburgh, Dark Music Days (Iceland),  Faster than Sound, Gaudeamus (Netherlands), Huddersfield, Konfrontationen (Austria), Latitude, Ruhr Triennale (Germany),  Sound Scotland, Tanglewood (US), Ultima (Norway).

As composer/performer, Zoë has collaborated with New York City Ballet dancer/choreographer Antonia Franceschi on many projects including Ballet Black/Royal Opera House,  92Y New York city; working with Laurence Olivier award winning director Toby Sedgwick on her celebrated one-woman show Revue Z which has played worldwide including festivals in Banff (Canada), Copenhagen, MORS (Denmark), Plush, FIMLuque Andalucia, Reykjavik, St Magnus Festival (Orkney) and Wigmore Hall.

Chosen to represent the UK at the 2024 ISCM World Music Days festival in the Faroes, Zoë launches her debut solo album as composer “Album Z” on NMC Records later this year, along with her new dramatic song cycle “Hôtel Babylon” (premiered at Wigmore Hall last year), performed by Claire Booth (sop) and Jâms Coleman (pno) on the Orchid label.

Her music has been performed by internationally renowned solo artists and ensembles including Riot Ensemble, London Sinfonietta, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group,  Onyx Brass Ensemble, Nicholas Daniel (oboe), Anna Dennis (soprano), Timothy Gill (cello), Alessandro Fisher and Mark Padmore (tenor), Lore Lixenberg and Lucy Schaufer (mezzo), Mark Simpson (clarinet), Heloïse Werner (sop) and ensemble, Lana Bode, Rolf Hind, Richard Uttley and Huw Watkins (piano), choir of Clare College, Cambridge.

Recent/upcoming commissions include pieces for Ben Goldscheider/ Camerata Pacifica festival 2025, California tour, Chamber Domaine/Wigmore;  Marian Consort, London Sinfonietta “Sound Out” /Royal Festival Hall; Grossman Ensemble, Chicago.

She is to be featured composer in this year’s Music at Malling and Endellion Festivals, her works are recorded on Albany Records, Cascavelle, Delphian, Meridian, NMC records, Non Classical and published by Schott.

Zoë is much in demand as presenter, panel host, inspirational speaker and for international competition juries, including BBC TV’s Maestro , Young Musician of the Year; BBC Proms, BBC Radio and TV, Newsnight; Young Musician of the Gulf (Bahrain), Royal Philharmonic Society, Ivor Awards, Eurovision Song Contest. She has written for publications including Classical Music Magazine, The Strad, Sinfini and her own Z Blog, and is regular live and online concert presenter for Wigmore Hall, Barbican Centre, Southbank Sinfonia and London Sinfonietta, for whom she also hosted podcast series The Music That Made Me.

A passionate educator, Zoë has taught at conservatoires, universities, schools and music festivals worldwide including Royal Academy, Royal College of Music, Guildhall School of Music, Birmingham Conservatoire, Royal Danish Academy of Music, Cambridge, Oxford, York, Surrey and Princeton Universities. She has coached National Youth Orchestra of GB, Tanglewood Contemporary Music Festival (U.S.), was artistic director of the Saigon Chamber Music Festival in Vietnam,  workshop leader Harstad Strings in arctic Norway, Aldeburgh Young Musicians/ Britten Pears new music programmes and creative mentor for emerging and established artists including Héloïse Werner and the Hermes Experiment and string tutor for the Palestinian Youth Orchestra 2024.

Zoë studied at the Royal College and Royal Academy of Music in London, Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw and Clare College, Cambridge University.

She is naturally blonde, and draws the line at Country and Western.

Dr Angela Elizabeth Slater is a UK-based composer, whose compositional voice focuses on musically mapping aspects of the natural world into the fabric of music. Nominated for an Ivors Classical Award for her work, Through the Fading Hour, her music has been described as ‘intricate…and often ravishingly scored’ and making ‘deft and vivid use of instrumental colour’.. Slater collaborates with performers, ensembles, and initiatives worldwide to musically explore sounds, colours, and textures.

Her work The Louder the Birds Sing received its Dutch premiere by Residentie Orkest den Haag after being selected as the winner Gaudeamus’s orchestral category.  Slater’s recent creative projects include fellowships at the Modern-Music Festival,; Hong Kong Intimacy of Creativity Festival, working with the Viano Quartet on Distorted Light; Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, for a commission of Where skies aflame; and Creative Dialogues Festival, for the world premiere of a tulip, iron. She has previously held Composition Fellowships at Tanglewood Music Center, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Society to name a few and also been in Mendelssohn Scholarship Award.

In 2024 she had several exciting performances and commissions including performances of Kármán line for symphony orchestra, Orbits edge for chamber ensemble, and This is Jane opera scene for 2 sopranos and piano as part of her compositional fellowship at Aspen Music Festival.

 In 2025 her work Mountains become Oceans a concerto for harp and percussion received its world premiered by Amarillo Symphony Orchestra with conductor George Jackson, harpist Rosanna Moore and percussionist Hannah Weaver on 28th February and 1st March 2025. In the latter half of 2025 and into 2026 Slater is looking forward to beginning work on her first full-length opera This is Jane in partnership with librettist Kendra Preston Leonard.

Gwendolen Martin studied music at Worcester College, Oxford and singing at Trinity Laban. She now enjoys a career as a soloist and ensemble singer. Recent highlights include Solomon’s Knot’s Class of 1685 tour, A Mortal Muse recital with Dowland’s Foundry (Oxford Festival of the Arts), Purcell’s Indian Queen (Opéra Lille, Emmanuelle Haïm), Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and Gluck’s Orfeo (The Sixteen, Grange Festival), Sweet Ayres of Arcadia lute song recitals with Din Ghani (Brighton Early Music Festival and Corvedale Festival), recitals for Handel House Talent (Handel and Hendrix in London), Handel recitals with violinist, Maggie Faultless (Music for Awhile) and touring The Leaves Be Greene with Chelys Consort of Viols at several of the UK’s music festivals. She has performed and recorded with Dowland’s Foundry, Solomon’s Knot, The Monteverdi Choir, BBC Singers, The Sixteen, The Tallis Scholars, The Gabrieli Consort, Eric Whitacre Singers, Ensemble Plus Ultra, Oxford Bach Soloists, London Choral Sinfonia, La Nuova Musica, London Voices, The King’s Consort and The Marian Consort. Gwendolen is passionate about music education and manages the Curriculum Partnership Programme for Southwark Music, training specialist music teachers in 30 primary schools.

Described as “a champion of his generation” and whose music is “hauntingly beautiful’ (Media Wales), Nathan James Dearden is an award-winning Welsh composer, conductor, and educator. He has been performed and featured by the BBC Singers, Philharmonia Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Berkeley Ensemble, Welsh National Opera, mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston, The Tippett Quartet, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, National Youth Choir of Wales, The Heath Quartet, Grand Band, the Fidelio Trio, Hebrides Ensemble, CHROMA ensemble, and flautist Carla Rees. His music regularly features in concerts across the UK and overseas, including at the ISCM World Music Days, Cheltenham Music Festival, Dartington International Summer Festival, International Young Composers’ Meeting, CROSSROADS International New Music Festival and Vale of Glamorgan Festival of Music. His music has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru, Resonance FM, RTÉ lyric FM, S4C and Soho Radio, and has been released on NMC Recordings and Delphian.

Recent notable performances and projects include: Three Motets, commissioned by Presteigne Festival of Music and Arts; messages, commissioned by Three Choirs Festival; a Welsh tour of The day following with UPROAR New Music Ensemble; and That now are distant, commissioned by Nicky Spence and Andrew Matthews-Owen.

A champion for bringing audiences and communities diverse and exciting programming, Nathan is also a sought-after conductor, arts advisor, event curator and educator. He is currently Lecturer in Music Composition and Music Performance Manager at Royal Holloway University of London, Conductor of the New Voices Consort and New Music Collective, and holds arts advisory roles with several international organisations.

Clemmie is a versatile Oxford-based singer with a broad and diverse portfolio as both a soloist and ensemble vocalist, performing and recording nationally and internationally. She holds a BA in Archaeology from the University of Bristol, an MMus in Ethnomusicology from SOAS, University of London and completed postgraduate studies in voice at Trinity Laban. Clemmie is a member of London Voices, contributing to numerous high-profile film soundtracks, and has provided backing vocals for a diverse roster of artists including Bellowhead, Spiritualized, Coldplay, and Bobby McFerrin. She performs regularly with choirs and choral societies, and tours the UK, Europe and USA, including with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, London Early Opera, Aldeburgh Voices, Dowland Works, The Telling, and is a founding member of Dowland’s Foundry and Voice. Clemmie is also passionate about interdisciplinary collaboration and has worked with acclaimed visual and sound artists including Turner Prize winner Martin Creed, Marianna Simnett at the Serpentine Gallery, Sam Belinfante, and Laure Prouvost in Brussels. She relishes the breadth of music her career encompasses—from Hildegard and Dowland to contemporary works and improvisation.

Passionate, prolific, and complicated, composer David Lang embodies the restless spirit of invention. Lang is at the same time deeply versed in the classical tradition and committed to music that resists categorization, constantly creating new forms.

Lang is one of America’s most performed composers. Many of his works resemble each other only in the fierce intelligence and clarity of vision that inform their structures. His catalogue is extensive, and his opera, orchestra, chamber and solo works are by turns ominous, ethereal, urgent, hypnotic, unsettling and very emotionally direct. Much of his work seeks to expand the definition of virtuosity in music — even the deceptively simple pieces can be fiendishly difficult to play and require incredible concentration by musicians and audiences alike.

the little match girl passion, commissioned by Carnegie Hall and premiered by Paul Hillier and Theatre of Voices, was recently listed by The Guardian as “one of the top 25 works of classical music written in the 21st Century.” It won the Pulitzer Prize in 2008 and the recording received a Grammy Award in 2010. Lang’s simple song #3, written as part of his score for Paolo Sorrentino’s acclaimed film YOUTH, received many awards nominations in 2016, including the Academy Award and Golden Globe.

His opera prisoner of the state (with libretto by Lang) was co-commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, Rotterdam’s De Doelen Concert Hall, London’s Barbican Centre, Barcelona’s l’Auditori, Bochum Symphony Orchestra, Bruges’s Concertgebouw, and Malmö Opera, and premiered June 2019 in New York, conducted by Jaap van Zweden.  It is a dark retelling of a portion of the story of Beethoven’s only opera Fidelio, in which a woman alone must change her identity to survive within the state.

His most recent opera note to a friend premiered at the Japan Society in New York as part of the 2023 PROTOTYPE Festival.  Co-commissioned by the Japan Society and the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan, and with music and libretto by Lang, note to a friend combines and reimagines three texts by Japanese novelist Ryunosuke Akutagawa — his story “Death Register,” the last chapter of his “In a Grove,” and his suicide note “Note to a Certain Old Friend” — as a monodrama that addresses the eternal human fascination with death, love, family and suicide.

Other recent works include the writings, commissioned by Carnegie Hall and the Netherlands Kamerkoor, and premiered by Theatre of Voices; the mile-long opera co-created with architect Elizabeth Diller and premiered in New York City’s mile-long elevated park The Highline, with texts by Anne Carson and Claudia Rankine; the loser, which opened the 2016 Next Wave Festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and for which Lang served as composer, librettist and stage director; the public domain for 1000 singers at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival; the concerto man made for the ensemble So Percussion and a consortium of orchestras, including the BBC Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic; mountain, commissioned by the Cincinnati Symphony; and death speaks, a song cycle based on Schubert, but performed by rock musicians, including Bryce Dessner from The National, Shara Nova from My Brightest Diamond, Owen Pallett from Arcade Fire, and composer / pianist Nico Muhly.

This season, The Crossing Choir gives the New York premiere of poor hymnal at Alice Tully Hall in December, and Lang’s new concert-length work, before and after nature — commissioned by Carnegie Hall, Stanford Live, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Helsinki Festival, Ruhrtriennale, and Chamber Choir Ireland — is premiered by the Bang on a Can All-Stars and the Stanford University Chorus in February 2025 at Stanford Live, with projections by Tal Rosner.

In November, the New York Philharmonic awarded Lang The Marie-Josée Kravis Prize for New Music for “extraordinary artistic endeavor in the field of new music.” The award comes with a monetary prize and a commission for a new work to be premiered by the New York Philharmonic in the 2025-2026 season.

Lang is a Professor of Music Composition at the Yale School of Music, and is co-founder and co-artistic director of New York’s legendary music collective Bang on a Can.

His music is published by Red Poppy Music and G. Ricordi & Co., New York (ASCAP) and is distributed worldwide by the Universal Music Publishing Group.

Delighting both ear and eye, the lovely Jean Kelly starred with the Locrian Ensemble in Handel’s delicious Harp Concerto, a beguiling combination.” Bournemouth Echo

Jean Kelly hails from an Irish family of several generations of professional musicians. Jean won a scholarship to study harp at the Royal College of Music, London. She is in great demand as a versatile harpist, with an eclectic career ranging from Early Music to Contemporary Classical and Folk Music. She has recorded three CDs with the Locrian Ensemble, including Handel Harp Concerto and Mozart Flute and harp Concerto. A CD of Chamber Music by Richard Arnell was Editor’s Choice in Gramophone magazine. She has also recorded for the Guild and Stockfisch labels. Jean performs on commercial film and TV soundtracks, for composers such as Jonny Greenwood, Max Richter and Dario Marianelli. She played solo harp on Michael Kiwanuka’s Mercury Prize-winning album. Jean regularly guests with The Telling and The Society of Strange and Ancient Instruments, playing medieval, gothic, celtic and triple harps. She loves the freedom of playing and improvising with these groups, extending beyond the printed notes, and drawing on her past musical influences.

“What is most impressive about Norburn’s conception is the way that the various strata and elements combine and cohere so effortlessly. Past and present, truth and fantasy, real and imagined come together in a tightly knit and intimate drama. The personal narrative is embedded neatly within historical, cultural and political contexts…..” Opera Today

Clare Norburn is a playwright, producer and retired singer. As a playwright, she has developed a new genre of concertplays and has written 14 projects to date, which have secured 4 and 5-star national reviews. Most of her work has been in partnership with BAFTA-nominated director Nicholas Renton. Clare is Artistic Director, playwright, producer and retired singer of The Telling, where music and theatre collide, for whom she has written: Empowered Women Trilogy (41+ performances and 3 films; selected by The Guardian as an online classical highlight of summer 2020); Love in the Lockdown (2021), an online play with music in nine episodes, starring Alec Newman and Rachael Stirling; I, Spie (2021)  (“Spooks meets Blackadder with music-theatre, 16th Century-style); and What the Dickens? (2023) which saw Dickens’ reading of A Christmas Carol hijacked by his wife and mistress, with Dickens himself forced into Scrooge’s role to face up to his past, present and possible future. Clare’s productions have toured UK festivals and venues including LSO St Luke’s, Bridgewater Hall and St John’s Smith Square. In 2023, Clare was selected as one of seven out of hundreds of applications to receive mentoring from BBC’s sister development company, The Space to rewrite an adaption of Love in the Lockdown for BBC Radio. In October 2023, she won the Colin Skipp Memorial Cup, a Radio-Playwriting competition with The End, Roll Credits about TV playwright Dennis Potter’s famous TV interview with Melvyn Bragg. As a singer, Clare sang as a soloist with many early music ensembles. Together with Deborah Roberts, Clare co-founded and co-ran Brighton Early Music Festival for 15 years.

“Mesmerising…” The Guardian

“A work that takes one’s breath away.” The Gramophone

Deborah Pritchard won a British Composer Award for her solo violin piece ‘Inside Colour.’ She has been broadcast by BBC Radio 3. Commercial recording include NMC, Signum and Nimbus. Her works have been performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, London Sinfonietta, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Philharmonia Orchestra, BBC Singers, Manchester Camerata, Chamber Domaine and the English String Orchestra.

As a synaesthetic composer she has worked with numerous visual artists. These include Maggi Hambling, Hughie O’Donoghue and Icelandic sculptor Steinunn Thorarinsdottir. Her violin concerto Wall of Water – after the paintings by Maggi Hambling – was performed at the National Gallery, Sainsbury Wing Theatre and held to critical acclaim by The Gramophone as a ‘work that will take ones breath away.’ The work also featured in Earth, Water, Air and Fire – a series of concerts for Music@Malling.

Pritchard also paints music. She has been commissioned to create a series of ‘music maps’ for the London Sinfonietta. These have been described in The Times as ‘beautifully illustrated…paying visual homage to those wonderful medieval maps of the world.’

Deborah Pritchard studied composition with Simon Bainbridge for her MMus Degree in Composition at the Royal Academy of Music. She was awarded her DPhil from Worcester College, Oxford where she studied with Robert Saxton.  Pritchard currently teaches composition tutorials at the University of Oxford. She was composer in residence at the Lichfield Festival, 2016 through the Sound and Music Embedded scheme and her work features in the ‘Hitting the right note: Amazing Women of the Royal Academy of Music’ exhibition on display at the Royal Academy of www.

www.britishmusiccollection.org.uk

Nick comes from a musical family and studied mime in Paris with Jacques Lecoq. He began directing for theatre, then for television with films like The Interrogation of John, much of the BBC hit Hamish Macbeth starring Robert Carlyle, Far From the Madding Crowd, Andrew Davies’ BAFTA-nominated adaptation of Wives and Daughters, and Uncle Adolf, Nigel Williams’ take on Hitler’s affair with Geli, his niece. The Russian Bride with Lia Williams, Guy Hibbert’s modern version of Therèse Raquin, won FIPA Prix D’Or in Biarritz. After making A Room with a View for TV with Elaine Cassidy, Nick was in Dublin to shoot an off-beat rom-com Little White Lie, in which Elaine starred with Andrew Scott, and When Harvey Met Bob with Domhnall Gleeson and Ian Hart, the story of Bob Geldof and Harvey Goldsmith bringing LiveAid to Wembley. And later, three stories in the BBC’s Musketeers series. He directs several of Clare Norburn’s concertplays including Gesualdo – Breaking the Rules for The Marian Consort, The Empowered Women Trilogy and I, Spie for The Telling, and Creating Carmen for CarmenCo.

“The soloist Ben Goldscheider was simply astounding, darting between all these moods with perfect, unflappable virtuosity. It was extraordinary to hear how many musical personalities the horn could take on: stony grandeur, lyrical sweetness, scampering energy.” The Daily Telegraph

Ben Goldscheider has premiered over 50 new works for the horn to date including concerti, solo, chamber and cross-genre projects including with live electronics and lighting. Further to the world premiere performances of two new concerti by composers Gavin Higgins and Huw Watkins in the 2023/24 season, upcoming highlights for Ben include debuts with the Uppsala Chamber Orchestra (Rebecca Miler) for the Swedish Premiere of Watkins’ Horn Concerto, the London Philharmonic (Valentina Peleggi) with Strauss, Horn Concerto No.2 and Norwegian Radio Orchestra (Jamie Phillips) with the Higgins Horn Concerto. Ben will return to Ulster Orchestra (Paweł Kapuła) for the Irish Premiere of Higgins’ concerto, as well as to the Aldeburgh Festival for the World Premiere of the Brian Elias Horn Concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sakari Oramo.  Ben will also join the London Symphony Orchestra for a performance of Lachenmann’s My Melodies for eight horns and orchestra.

Further recent highlights include recitals at major concert halls across Europe including at the Concertgebouw, Musikverein, Pierre Boulez Saal, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Koln Philharmonie, Southbank Centre and Wigmore Hall and as soloist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (BBC Proms), Ulster Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, London Mozart Players, Lucerne Symphony, Philharmonie Zuidnederland, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Prague Philharmonia, Munich Chamber Orchestra (Klosters Music), Das Sinfonie Orchester Berlin and Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen among others.

A committed chamber musician, Ben has collaborated with Daniel Barenboim, Martha Argerich, Sergei Babayan, Kirill Gerstein, Denis Kozuhkin, Sunwook Kim, Clara Jumi-Kang and Allan Clayton at the Verbier, Salzburg, Jerusalem, Intonations (Berlin) and Barenboim (Buenos Aires) Festivals, among others. In recital, Ben has collaborated with Michael Barenboim, Stephen Hough, Tom Poster, Benjamin Baker and Richard Uttley and is a member of the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective. Upcoming highlights include a return to the Heidelberger Frühling for multiple performances including a solo recital and Schubert Octet, as well in the US to Camerata Pacifica in Santa Barbara. In 2025, Ben will also be artist-in-residence at the Barnes Music Festival featuring in concerti and chamber music performances.

His recordings include Legacy: A Tribute to Dennis Brain on Three Worlds Records with newly commissioned pieces by Huw Watkins and Roxanna Panufnik and a solo concerto recording with the Philharmonia Orchestra featuring the works of Arnold, Schoenberg and Gipps conducted by Lee Reynolds. Ben also recorded the solo horn call from Wagner’s Siegfried with the Hallé Orchestra conducted by Sir Mark Elder.

 Ben is a member of the Boulez Ensemble and Principal Horn of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra . He holds a professorship at the Royal Conservatory in Antwerp and is the Artist in Association at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

 Born in London in 1997, Ben studied at the Royal College of Music Junior Department with Susan Dent and in 2020 Ben completed his studies with honours at the Barenboim-Said Academy in Berlin with Radek Baborák.  He was a prize-winner at the 2019 YCAT International Auditions, Concerto Finalist in the 2016 BBC Young Musician Competition, and an ECHO Rising Star for the 2021/22 season nominated by the Barbican, London.

“What an amazing musician Watkins is, this unfailingly dependable and musical pianist who seems to be everywhere.  If he caught a cold most of Britain’s summer festival season would collapse.” The Daily Telegraph

Huw Watkins was born in Wales in 1976. He studied piano with Peter Lawson at Chetham’s School of Music, and composition with Robin Holloway, Alexander Goehr, and Julian Anderson at Cambridge and the Royal College of Music. In 2001, he was awarded the Constant and Kit Lambert Junior Fellowship at the Royal College of Music, and he has taught composition at both the RCM and the Royal Academy of Music.

Watkins’s growing body of orchestral works includes the widely acclaimed Violin Concerto (2010) and two commissions from the London Symphony Orchestra: London Concerto (2005) and the Flute Concerto (2013). His longstanding relationship with BBCNOW has resulted in a number of works, including a Piano Concerto (2002) and a Double Concerto (2005). More recently, as Composer in Association (2015-2019), Watkins wrote a Cello Concerto (2016) for his brother, cellist Paul Watkins, and The Moon (2019) for chorus and orchestra. Watkins has written two symphonies for the Hallé Orchestra and Sir Mark Elder, the second of which won the South Bank Sky Arts Award for classical music in 2022.

A wealth of chamber music is central to Watkins’ output, complementing his parallel career as a pianist. Long-time supporters, the Nash Ensemble have commissioned several works, and he has written string quartets for the Belcea, Carducci and Calidore quartets. Among works for his brother, Paul Watkins is Blue Shadows Fall (2012-13), commissioned by Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, who also co-commissioned Watkins’ Piano Quintet (2018) with Wigmore Hall.

Watkins’ vocal works include In my craft or sullen art (2007) for tenor and string quartet and Five Larkin Songs (2009-10) for soprano and piano, which won a British Composer Award. In 2017, Watkins was commissioned by King’s College, Cambridge, to write a carol for the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols.

As pianist, Watkins has appeared as soloist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Britten Sinfonia, and the London Sinfonietta, and performs throughout Europe and North America as soloist and chamber musician. Many composers have written concertos for him, including Philip Cashian, Tansy Davies and Helen Grime. He records for labels such as Signum, Chandos and BIS with regular collaborators Tamsin Waley Cohen, Ruby Hughes and Adam Walker. Watkins was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2021 Birthday Honours for services to music.

“Under Pope Benedict’s watch, Hildegard was not only canonised but recognised as a Doctor of the Church, one of only four women to have been so honoured. It seems a fitting epitaph for a singular woman, and a timely epilogue to Maddocks’s hugely enjoyable and informative book.” The Guardian

Chief Music Critic of The Observer, Fiona’s Hildegard of Bingen (2001) was a great critical success when published by Headline and Doubleday (US) and has now been re-issued by Faber. She was part of the team that set up Channel 4, was first music editor at The Independent and founding editor of BBC MusicMagazine. She was educated at the Royal College of Music and at Cambridge. She wrote Conversations with Harrison Birtwistle for Faber, to coincide with his 80th birthday in 2014.

In 2016, Faber published her delightful anthology Music For Life: 100 Works to Carry You Through.

Goodbye Russia: Rachmaninoff in Exile was published in June 2023 by Faber & Faber which explores the life of Russian composer, Sergei Rachmaninoff.

“A contemporary music trailblazer.” The New York Times

The London Sinfonietta is one of the world’s finest contemporary music ensembles with a reputation built on cutting-edge programming and virtuosic performances.

Founded in 1968, the ensemble’s long-held commitment to new music has seen it commission over 450 works, and premiere hundreds more. This approach has seen them establish a reputation as a world-leading new music ensemble that isn’t afraid to take risks.

Its mission is to place the best contemporary classical music at the heart of today’s culture; engaging and challenging the public through inspiring performances of the highest standard, and taking risks to develop new work and talent.

“Passion, energy and the sort of virtuosity which never took itself seriously.” Reviewsgate.com

The London Tango Quintet is a unique group of five internationally acclaimed musicians performing tango music at the highest level. The group was formed in 2007 when violinist, David Juritz, brought together the Grammy-nominated guitarist, Craig Ogden, and Serbian accordion virtuoso, Miloš Milivojević. Soon after, they were joined by one of London’s top session bassists, Richard Pryce, and jazz pianist/harpsichordist/composer, David Gordon.

David Juritz, whose solo appearances include all the UK’s major concert halls, has performed on hundreds of film soundtracks, played tangos for BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing and hit the headlines when he busked around the world for charity. Craig Ogden appears as a soloist with leading orchestras around the world, is the most sought-after guitarist for chamber music in the UK and has regularly topped the UK’s classical charts. Described by The Times as ‘a hurricane of musical invention’, Miloš Milivojević is in demand as a soloist, chamber musician and with leading opera companies including Opera North and Opera Holland Park. Pianist/composer David Gordon tours world-wide as a jazz musician, harpsichordist and director of internationally renowned ensembles and is regularly commissioned as a composer while double bassist, Richard Pryce, works with all the major orchestras and artists from Jamie Cullum to Paloma Faith.

The London Tango Quintet has performed at numerous festivals and venues throughout the UK drawing superlatives from audiences and promoters. It was a full 16 years before they ventured into the recording studio as they wanted to produce something distinctive in a very competitive field. Their long-awaited debut recording Dancing with Piazzolla features the legendary Argentinian tango composer Astor Piazzolla, together with music by Horacio Salgan, other tango classics and two tracks composed by David Gordon. It was released in February 2024 on Untuned Sky via AWAL and produced by Andrew Walton of K&A Productions.

“Cope’s writing is skilful and bold…a phenomenal rising star…” Monarch Magazine

Claire Cope is an award winning British composer, pianist and bandleader whose work spans both contemporary classical, and jazz and improvised music. Concerned primarily with emotional connectivity and story-telling, Claire’s music has a strong sense of narrative and ‘journeying’, with focused melodic and rhythmic impetus. Her music has been performed in Europe and the United States, and she has performed at the Manchester Jazz Festival, the London Jazz Festival and as part of the BBC Proms Plus Series, broadcast on BBC Radio 3.

In 2022 Claire won a Marvin Hamlisch International Music Award, and in 2023 a UK Arts Council DYCP grant to compose new music for her 11 piece contemporary jazz ensemble, Ensemble C. Following their successful debut album ‘Small World’ in 2020, their latest album ‘Every Journey’ was recently released on the New York based Adhyâropa label to widespread critical acclaim, with Ron Schepper of Textura describing it as ‘a tremendous realization of her vision’ and Jerome Wilson of All About Jazz describing it as ‘a powerful album that establishes Claire Cope as a major new compositional voice.’

Claire has collaborated with a variety of ensembles and musicians, including saxophonists Andy Scott and Rob Buckland, and trumpeter Lucy Humphris. In 2021 she was commissioned by the ground-breaking Apollo Saxophone Quartet to compose a new work, and this piece was selected in the LunArt Festival Call for Scores 2024, receiving its US premiere in Madison, Wisconsin by the Ancia Sax Quartet.

In 2023, Claire was selected to participate in the LunArt Composer Hubwith composer Dorothy Chang, and was also a fellow on the Let’s Bespoken Mentorship programme. In 2024, she participated in the Three Choirs Festival New Voices Composer Academy, where The Carice Singers premiered her first choral work, ‘In Its Light’, performed again in July 2025 at the Spitalfields Music Festival, London.

Having previously studied piano performance at the Royal Northern College of Music, where she won the John Ireland Prize and the Principal’s Prize for Improvisation, during the 2024-2025 academic year, Claire continued her compositional studies with Gary Carpenter and Emily Howard at RNCM, with generous support from SJM Concerts Bursary. She has participated in workshops with the Hallé Orchestra, and the Fairey Band premiered her first piece for brass band ‘Through the Spiral’. In July 2025, Claire was one of 4 selected composers to attend the Edward T. Cone Composition Institute at Princeton, where the New Jersey Symphony orchestra premiered her piece ‘Agita’. In August 2025, Iva Ugrčić and Satoko Hayami will premiere Claire’s first piece for flute and piano at the National Flute Convention in Atlanta, Georgia.

“An instant classic..lush…riveting…” The Times

Dani Howard is a British composer and orchestrator who is quickly gaining international recognition with regular performances across Europe, the US and Asia. Described as having a “luminous and effervescent sound world” (Gramophone), Howard’s work has been commissioned and performed by orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Gävle Symphony Orchestra, and Kuopio Symphony. Conductors have included Vasily Petrenko, Dalia Stasevska, Kazuki Yamada, Elim Chan, and Chloé Van Soeterstède. In 2022, she won a Royal Philharmonic Society Award for her Trombone Concerto which was dubbed “an instant classic” The Times.

The 2024/25 season brings commissions including a Saxophone Concerto for Jess Gillam commissioned by Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra; a solo percussion work for Colin Currie at Wigmore Hall; a Clarinet Quartet Concerto for the German Clarinets and Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz; and a new work for trumpeter Matilda Lloyd, forming part of her ECHO Rising Star tour. A new work for the Leonore Trio will also feature at Presteigne Festival and Music in the Round.

In 2024, Howard was appointed Resident Artist with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain; through the residency she was commissioned to write two new works for NYO, including a large-scale orchestral work at the BBC Proms for over 260 musicians, which was broadcast on BBC Four. 2024 also saw the release of Howard’s debut album of orchestral works on Rubicon Classics, featuring Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and trombonist Peter Moore, conducted by Pablo Urbina and Michael Seal. Financial Times commented that “a brilliant command of the orchestra  […] shows why Howard has become one of the most sought-after British composers of the younger generation.” Other 2023/24 highlights include a Percussion Concerto for Dame Evelyn Glennie and BBC National Orchestra of Wales, alongside commissions from Grimethorpe Colliery Band, saxophonist Jonathan Radford and guitarist Jack Hancher. 

August 2023 saw the premiere of Howard’s chamber opera The Yellow Wallpaper at Copenhagen Opera Festival, with the UK premiere taking place the following month at Sadler’s Wells. The production was Howard’s second collaboration with commissioners The Opera Story; her debut opera ROBIN HOOD (2019) premiered to critical acclaim, described as “a sophisticated and incredibly beautiful piece that surely places Howard amongst the best of contemporary British opera composers” Bachtrack.

An early success for Howard came with Argentum (2017), commissioned by Classic FM to celebrate their 25^th anniversary, and co-commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society. Argentum has since received over thirty performances worldwide, including with BBC Symphony, Philharmonic, and Concert orchestras, and at the BBC Proms with Sinfonia Smith Square (formerly Southbank Sinfonia). Following the premiere of Howard’s Trombone Concerto (2021) with Peter Moore and RLPO conducted by Domingo Hindoyan, the work has since received performances from London Symphony Orchestra, Gävle Symfoniorkester and The Orchestra NOW among others.

“…a delectable soprano and a serene, ever-sentient presence.” The Times

Anna Dennis studied at the Royal Academy of Music and was the recipient of the 2023 Royal Philharmonic Society’s Singer award. She has appeared with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of St Luke’s, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Orquestra Gulbenkian, les Violons du Roy, Britten Sinfonia, Akademie Alte Musik Berlin, and Sinfonietta Riga. She has sung Britten’s War Requiem (Berlin Philharmonie), Thomas Adès’s Life Story accompanied by the composer (Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival), Boulez’s Pli Selon Pli (BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican), J.S. Bach’s Mein Herze Schwimmt im Blut with Kristian Bezuidenhout, Haydn’s The Seasons (Düsseldorf Symphony and Adam Fischer), and Handel’s Orlando (Academy of Ancient Music and Laurence Cummings).

One of the most distinctive voices in the well-stocked, thirtysomethibng generation of British composers.” The Guardian

Cheryl Frances-Hoad was born in Essex in 1980 and received her musical education at the Yehudi Menuhin School, Gonville and Caius College Cambridge, and Kings College London. Her music has been described as “like a declaration of faith in the eternal verities of composition” (The Times), with “a voice overflowing not only with ideas, but also with the discipline and artistry necessary to harness them” (The Scotsman).

Chosen to be a featured composer on BBC Radio 3’s ‘Composer of the Week’ (Five under 35, March 2015), her works have garnered many awards, from the BBC Lloyds Bank Composer of the Year award when she was just 15 to more recently The RPS Composition Prize, The Mendelssohn Scholarship, and three Ivor Novello (formally BASCA) British Composer Awards (for Psalm 1 and Stolen Rhythm in 2010, and Scenes from the Wild in 2022).

She has held the posts of Leverhulme Musician in Residence (at the University of Cambridge Psychiatry Department, 2008), Rambert Composer in Residence (2012/13), Opera North/Leeds University Cultural Fellow in Opera Related Arts (2010/12), Visiting Research Fellow in the Creative Arts at Merton College Oxford (2021/2) and Visiting Fellow at Keble College Oxford (2022). Cheryl was also one of the first recipients of the PRS Composer’s Fund Awards, in 2016.

Cheryl has released six celebrated CDs of her music, and her works currently feature on 28 other discs. Her recent disc of vocal music, Magic Lantern Tales, has been highly praised: “the longer you listen to this beautifully crafted CD (…) the deeper you fall under its spell” (SWR2 Treffpunkt Klassik, Germany), “Frances-Hoad’s Magic Lantern Talesdisorientate and delight in equal measure” (Opera Today). Her 2011 CD of chamber works, The Glory Tree, was selected as “Chamber Music Choice” by BBC Music Magazine.

Recent projects include Your servant, Elizabeth, commissioned by the BBC Proms for the ‘Platinum Jubilee’ Prom on 22nd July 2022 at the Royal Albert Hall. The work, which paid homage to both Queen Elizabeth II and William Byrd, was picked by Ivan Hewett in The Telegraph as the highlight of the 2022 Proms season: “like all the best “classical music”, it was fresh and surprising, yet rooted in tradition, and gave plenty of hope that an embattled art form has plenty of life in it yet”. Cheryl was composer-in-residence at Presteigne Festival 2019 and was Associate Composer at Oxford Lieder Festival from 2019-2021: her half-hour song cycle, everything grows extravagantly, written with poet Kate Wakeling was premiered by baritone Marcus Farnsworth and Libby Burgess in 2021 at St. John the Evangelist, Oxford and was chosen as one of the five best classical events of 2021 by The Times.

​The music of Cheryl Frances-Hoad is published by Chester Music Limited, part of Wise Music Group. Go to Cheryl’s Music page to find out more about her music by category.

Joy Nkoyo is a British vocalist, songwriter, music producer, and composer. A 5th generation Londoner with Nigerian heritage, her work bridges across Classical and Pop genres, creating a unique intersection between worlds.

Joy has received acclaim for her songwriting and music production, with nominations for the Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition and Youth Music Awards, and a residency at The Roundhouse.

Joy is an LPO Young Composer for this season (2024-2025). She has been commissioned by the British Music Collection, Spitalfields Music Festival and Sound and Music, with her music being performed in prestigious UK venues such as King’s Place, and Lyric Hammersmith.

She has also made numerous appearances as a TV guest on the BBC Proms, is co-producing a segment of BBC Radio 3’s upcoming Unwind Strand, and hosts a podcast Noise in the Gallery.

“Brilliantly inventive…” The Times

Kerry Andrew  is a UK-based writer, composer and performer, and the author of three literary novels, Swansong, SKIN and We Are Together Because. They won the Edinburgh Short Story Award 2024, a Northern Writers’ Award for Fiction 2025, and have been twice shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award. With a PhD in composition from the University of York and four British Composer Awards, Kerry specialises in experimental vocal and choral music, music-theatre and community music, creates alt-folk as You Are Wolf and co-founded the award-winning Juice Vocal Ensemble.

Kerry’s short story debut was commissioned by BBC Radio 4 in 2014. Kerry’s first novel Swansong was published by Vintage in 2018, and second novel SKIN was published in 2021. A third novel, We Are Together Because, was published by Atlantic in 2024 and was The New European’s Fiction Book of the Year 2024. Kerry was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award in 2018 and again in 2022; was a prizewinner in the international Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize 2021; and was longlisted for the Nature Chronicles Prize 2022. They won the Edinburgh Short Story Prize 2024 with their story The Coffin Path. They received a New Writing North Northern Writers’ Award 2025 to work on their first historical novel.

As a composer, Kerry has created work for Art on the Underground; BBC Ten Pieces at the BBC Proms, including being made into a cartoon character for BBC Bitesize; a work simultaneously performed by 25 community ensembles around the UK for the Landmark Trust; and socially-driven pieces about the NHS and Covid vaccines for the London Sinfonietta. Other posts include Handel House Composer In Residence 2010-12, Visiting Professor at Leeds College of Music, and British Council/PRSF Musician in Residence in China in 2016. In 2019, Kerry’s work Under the Same Sky for large-scale girls’ choir and taiko drums was premiered at Sydney Opera House, and vocal music was composed for ‘Rutherford and Sons’ at London’s National Theatre. Other commissioners have included the Ligeti Quartet, Mahogany Opera, Icebreaker, ORA Singers, the Foundling Museum and music has been performed by the Hermes Experiment, the Heath Quartet, CHROMA, Rolf Hind, the Hilliard Ensemble, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Southbank Sinfonia, members of the CBSO, and nationally and internationally by Juice Vocal Ensemble.

In 2010, Kerry won a British Composer Award for the choral work Fall in the Making Music category. In 2014, the wild swimming opera Dart’s Love won in the Stage Works category, and the community chamber opera Woodwose, written for Wigmore Hall, won in the Education and Community Category. In 2017, Kerry won a fourth award for the vocal/body percussion work Who we are, premiered by the 600 singers of the massed National Youth Choirs of Great Britain at the Royal Albert Hall.

Kerry’s work is broadcast regularly on BBC Radio 3, and has been heard on Radios 2, 4 & 5, & 6 Music. Choral/vocal work published by Oxford University Press, University of York Music Press & Faber Music and works recorded on Naxos, Presto Classics, Delphian, Resonus Classics & Nonclassical.

Kerry co-founded the award-winning experimental post-a cappella trio Juice Vocal Ensemble, who have released two albums on the Nonclassical label. Kerry also performs/produces alt-folk as You Are Wolf, exploring traditional songs and lore in unusual, electronica-tinged arrangements. You Are Wolf’s second album, Keld, was awarded fRoots magazine’s Editor’s Choice! Album of the Year 2018 and was in the Guardian’s Top Ten Folk Albums 2018. Their third album, hare // hunter // moth // ghost was The Guardian’s Folk Album of the Month in November 2023. The Lost Words: Spell Songs in 2019, saw Kerry work alongside musicians including Julie Fowlis and Karine Polwart, and have a song Bluebell performed with orchestra at the BBC Proms. Kerry was also a multi-instrumentalist with the rock/classical/jazz quintet DOLLYman.

Kerry has presented the New Music Show on BBC Radio 3, and was 2018’s Chair of the Judges for BBC Young Musician.

‘The Tippett Quartet’s performances are little short of astonishing’

The Times

The Tippett Quartet have performed and broadcast throughout the UK, Europe, Canada and Mexico, and their broad and diverse repertoire highlights the ensemble’s unique versatility. They have an impressive catalogue of recordings and have given numerous world and UK premieres.

They released a recording of the Penderecki Quartets which was described as ‘life-enhancing’ by The Times and they were also awarded Gramophone Record of the Month for their recording of Gorécki Quartets: ‘I cannot recommend this recording highly enough and have run out of superlatives’ – The Gramophone

The Tippett Quartet pursues a keen interest in educational work with both schools and Universities. They were Ensemble in Residence at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University for 2012-13 and from 2014-2024 Royal Holloway University, London.

In 2011 the quartet celebrated the anniversary of the iconic film composer Bernard Herrmann with a series of concerts and radio broadcasts, and can be heard as featured artists on the film Knives Out and Glass Onion. In 2023 they celebrated their 25th Anniversary with the release of the complete Korngold Quartets to great acclaim. It was Chamber CD of the month in BBC Music Magazine and also included in The Times and The Sunday Times Top 10 Classical Recordings of the Year.

@…one of those once seen never quite forgotten works.” Opera Today

London-based composer Jasper Eaglesfield studied composition at the Royal College Of Music in London under tutelage of Kenneth Hesketh, Jonathan Cole, and Mark-Anthony Turnage as a Big Give Scholar, graduating in 2024. In his time there, he won the RCM Large Ensemble Composition Competition twice; once in 2022 and again in 2023. Prior to this he studied composition for four years with David John Roche, receiving additional guidance from composers including Tom Coult, Edmund Finnis, and David Horne. From 2015 to 2019 Jasper was a member of the Britten Sinfonia Academy and in 2020 he was a composer in the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. In 2019, Jasper won the SoundWorld Young Composer’s Prize and in 2023 he was winner of the audience prize for the Clements Prize for composers.

Jasper’s works have been performed and recorded by ensembles including the Bristol Ensemble, The Brodsky Quartet, Explore Ensemble, Britten Sinfonia and Fidelio Trio, in venues such as St George’s Bristol, the Barbican Centre, the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge University, St Mary Le Strand and Conway Hall. In 2023, Jasper collaborated with the English National Ballet School on his new one-act ballet ‘Three Houses,’ and in 2024 his double percussion concerto ‘Many Hands In High Places’ was premiered by Sirocco percussion duo, alongside the RCM Philharmonic Orchestra. His chamber opera ‘The Anthem’ with a libretto by Harry Davies was described by Opera Today as ‘something of a masterpiece of theatre and opera.’

​​Jasper is a Britten Pears Young Artist for the 2024-25 season.

“Outstanding playing…” Seen and Heard

“Singing one person to a part, The Marian Consort give sublimely refined, spacious and impeccably tuned performances.” The Sunday Times

The Marian Consort is an award-winning British vocal ensemble that presents bold and thrilling performances of music from across the centuries.

Led by founder and director Rory McCleery, The Marian Consort (TMC) is distinguished by its flexible, intimate approach, with a clarity of texture and subtlety of interpretation that illuminates the music for performer and audience alike. TMC features regularly on UK and international television and radio (including BBC Two’s recent flagship documentary series ‘Art That Made Us’), and has released fourteen recordings to critical acclaim, garnering a variety of accolades and awards including the Diapason D’Or, Presto Classical Album of the Year and the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik. 

Recent highlights of TMC’s live performance schedule include appearances at London’s Wigmore Hall, the BBC Proms, Festival Europäische Kirchenmusik Schwäbisch Gmünd (broadcast on German national radio), the Miller Theatre series at Columbia University in New York and Tokyo’s Bunka Kaikan Recital Hall (filmed for Japanese television).

Noted for ‘performances that glow with golden purity and soul’, The Marian Consort performs music from the twelfth century to the present day, with a focus on bringing to light and championing marginalised and lesser-known Renaissance composers such as Vicente Lusitano, Raffaella Aleotti, and Jean Maillard. Praised for its engaging and innovative programming, TMC also works with living composers through its New Music Programme, commissioning extensively alongside mentoring developing composers through the Emerging Voices scheme. TMC has premiered over 30 works to date and in recent years has commissioned Dani Howard, David Fennessy, Anna Semple, Laurence Osborn and Electra Perivolaris. In 2025 TMC is a Royal Philharmonic Society Composers Programme Partner.

TMC is also a pioneer of projects which move beyond the confines of the traditional concert, notably ‘Breaking the Rules’, a staged concert-drama based on the life and crimes of Carlo Gesualdo called ‘daring and vivid’ by The Guardian; ‘Lusitano Remixed’, a touring surround sound installation made with Roderick Williams; and most recently ‘Face to Face’, a multimedia performance experience combining film, sound art, movement, Italian Renaissance madrigals and new music by Joanna Ward developed in collaboration with Britten Pears Arts. TMC joins forces with ensembles and soloists of international repute to give concerts, commission and record: recent collaborations have included Daniel Pioro, Britten Sinfonia, {oh!} Orkiestra and Illyria Consort.

TMC is committed to inspiring a love of singing and creativity in people of all ages, with a particular focus on children and young people, and hosts workshops & study days, performs schools concerts, and leads on longer-term education projects with partners both in the UK and internationally. We have an avid online following, and present performance videos and podcasts in collaboration with prize-winning poets, actors, writers, artists, academics, composers and musicians, reaching an audience of millions worldwide.

Theatre credits include: Uncle Vanya (Orange Tree Theatre) Our Church (The Watermill Theatre), About Leo (Jermyn Street Theatre), Cyril’s Success, Dream of Perfect Sleep, Variation on a Theme (Finborough Theatre), A Day By The Sea (Southwark Playhouse), The Wars of the Roses (Rose Theatre Kingston), A Chorus of Disapproval (Harold Pinter Theatre), Playhouse Creatures, Rattigan’s Nijinsky, The Deep Blue Sea (Chichester Festival Theatre), Inherit the Wind, Richard 11, 900 Oneonta (The Old Vic), Gone With the Wind (Gillian Lynne Theatre), Anything Goes (Theatre Royal Drury Lane, National Theatre), Denial (Bristol Old Vic), The Old Country (English Touring Theatre, Trafalgar Studios), Runaway, The Merry-Go-Round (Royal Court Theatre), Eurydice (Trafalgar Studios), His Lordship’s Fancy (Gate Theatre), Favourite Nights (Lyric Hammersmith Theatre), The Relapse, Bartholemew Fair, Twelfth Night, Julius Caesar, Heresies, Mephisto, No Limits to Love, Anna Christie, Othello, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Suicide, Three Sisters (RSC), Zack, The Rivals, Much Ado About Nothing, Loot (Royal Exchange Theatre), Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Ambassadors Theatre) and Long Day’s Journey into Night (Cambridge Theatre, UK tour).

Television credits include Ted Lasso (Seasons 1,2,3), Manhunt: The Night Stalker, Piss Off, I Love You, The Trial, Silk, The Cry, Goodnight Sweetheart, Minder/Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, Playing the Field.

Film credits include: The Death and Life of John F Donovan.

“Pearson is in shattering form on these sessions” Sunday Times

James Pearson is one of the country’s most respected musicians. His work covers all genres of music, especially contemporary music, jazz and classical. He graduated from the Guildhall School, having completed his degree and the Advanced Solo Studies Course. Whilst at college he studied with Robert Saxton, Francis Shaw, Peter Bithell and James Gibb.

James has broadcast on all the major radio and television networks. Classic FM broadcast his concert of Rachmaninoff’s 2nd piano concerto, and BBC Radio 2 broadcast his performance of the Gershwin Piano Concerto and Rhapsody in Blue. He was the pianist in the Steve Martland Band. His work as a Jazz musician has taken him all over the world. Earlier this year, the James Pearson Trio was invited to play a four night run at New York’s Birdland Jazz Club. His fine piano playing and arrangements can be heard on over 50 albums.

Amongst the many artists James has worked with are Dame Cleo Laine, Maria Ewing, Marian Montgomery, Petula Clark, Kevin Spacey, John Wilson, Elvin Jones, Wynton Marsalis, Joss Stone, Dave Stewart, Buddy Greco, Johnny Griffin, Joseph Horowitz, Richard Rodney Bennett, Ray Davies, Jeff Beck and Paul McCartney.

He is the Artistic Director of Ronnie Scott’s, London.

www.jamespearsonmusic.com

Francesca Amewudah-River is a multi-talented British actress, musician and composer, known for her contributions to both stage and screen.  She made her West End debut in 2024, playing the iconic role of Juliet in Romeo and Juliet opposite actor Tom Holland.  On television, she graced two seasons of the BBC sitcom Bad Education playing the character Blessing alongside Jack Whitehall.  Her diverse acting ability is further reflected in her performances in the theatre productions of Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Othello at the National Youth Theatre, as well as through her role in the adaptation of the Sophocles’ tragedy Antigone at the Mermaid Theatre.

Amewadah-Rivers is not only an accomplished actress but also a composer, having composed music for the short films Medea, Minutes and Messenger. This talent was recognised in 2021, when she was awarded the Evening Standard Future Theatre Award for Audio Design.  Her musical skills are not confined to composing alone.  She is a classical and jazz pianist and also proficient with the guitar, bassoon and djembe drum.