Composition

He has been described as “A Magician of Sound…hyperkinetic rainbow-hued…joy & freedom” (Financial Times), “the most joyous sound I’ve heard in ages!” (New York Times),  “A riotous overabundance of love and rage…an extraordinary experience” (The Wire),”a system-crasher of genre…unmistakable style…highly complex, sophisticated and extremely entertaining, virtuoso ad absurdum” (Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik), and “a super nova…a brazen sensorial mash up…riot and a rainbow…brimmingly heartfelt multi sensorial, genuinely energising fizzer of a new work…super charged joy…forces us all to sit up and loosen up and buck up” (Kate Mollison BBC New Music Show.)

His music has been awarded: an Ivor Novello, Paul Hindemith Prize: ” a Brit who defies every conceivable genre boundary…an extremely modern and future-oriented style”. Ernst von Siemens Composer Prize: “Unbridled joy…sophisticated, passionate music full of pulsating energy and stylistic diversity”, Elb Philharmonie’s Claussen Simon Composition Prize, RPS Royal Philharmonic Society Prize, Dankworth Jazz Prize, Leverhume Art Scholarship with the London Philharmonic Orchestra , the Harriet Cohen Memorial Music Award.

He was a London Symphony Orchestra Panufnik Composer and has represented the UK in the Orchestral section of the International Society of Contemporary Music (ISCM).
“Some of the most genuinely extraordinary orchestral music you’ll ever have the good fortune to experience…staggeringly happy…unstoppable, continue-at-all-costs need to sing. Melody is literally everywhere…it’s undeniably a superabundance, yet it’s also an unbelievable, glorious treat” 5 against 4.

Alex has released three critically acclaimed albums MUSIC for BOSCH PEOPLE (Birmingham Record Company/ NMC label), iLOLLI-POP (non-classical) and HAPPY MUSIC for ORCHESTRA (Delphian) as well as many smaller releases. Each has been widely reviewed and featured in Uk, USA and Europe in broad sheets (NYT, Guardian, Times, Financial Times etc) and Music magazines (The Wire. Quitus, Bandcamp, Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik, Crescendo,Positionen, Point of Departure etc.)

He is a commissioned contributor to John Zorn’s Arcana X 2021. “This is what an orchestra can be like in the 21st century: an ensemble that speaks with one voice yet also gives voice to each of its members” The Times

His music is frequently performed internationally by many of the worlds leading orchestras, ensembles and festivals: London Symphony Orchestra (LSO), WDR Symphony Orchestra, NDR Elb Philharmonie, Ensemble Modern, Klang Forum Wien, London Sinfonietta, AskSchöenberg, Neue Vocalsolisten, Riot Ensemble, Explore Ensemble, Ensemble Klang, London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO), Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO), National Youth Orchestra GB, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO) Nouvel Ensemble Contemporain,, BBC proms, Bang on a Can Long Play, MearzMusik, Guadeamus, ECLAT, impulse Graz, Now essen, Klangspuren swartz, Wigmore hall, Klammer Klang,, Making Music (UK), Hyper Duo, National Youth Jazz Orchestra (UK) NYJO, Listen-Pony, Aldeburgh Festival. “Alex Paxton’s fascinating score impressed me from the very first moment…the notes literally jumped out at me from the score; it was clear that this was a unique compositional voice, combining a complex, almost chaotic sensibility with a charming grounding in folk tradition.” conductor Alan Gilbert

He has written six operas hosted by English National Opera and Helios Collective, Tête à Tête opera festival, Second Movement Opera. “Operatic Game Boy music played by a virtuosic motley crew that’s inexplicably been hired to provide live jingles for a primetime TV show sometime in the recent past that never quite was” Point of departure

As a jazz trombone soloist “Paxton is a monster improviser” (Bandcamp) Alex has performed concerto-like pieces of his own with WDR Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Modern, London Sinfonietta, Asko:Schoenberg,  Riot Ensemble, Ensemble Klang, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO), & ensemble x.y.

He is founder of Dreammusics ensemble and performs regularly with pioneering improvisers (eg: Charlotte Keeffe, Steve Noble). “meticulously scored…seems to change with every bar, enfolding bite-size pieces of classic minimalism, brass brand tradition, electronic noise, & video game plasticity..intensely virtuosic and giddily joyful. electronically slathered trombone…connects his garrulous attack to the most extroverted playing of George Lewis & Roswell Rudd…” Bandcamp Daily Best Contemporary Classical.

Alex has written extensively for musicians in community settings including, innovative ways of writing for young instrumentalists & singers in a post-Roald Dahl world of new-music.  eg: NOGGIN and the WHALE (Massed forces including 500 young instrumentalists and singes), Fly Like a Kitchen, Muffin, Pudding Tummy and The smelling test.

He is professorial composition staff at Trinity Laban and has worked as lead-composition tutor (and workshop leader) on the National Youth Orchestra GB, he has taught/ lectured at composition and improvisation at conservatories including, RAM, GSMD, RCM, The Royal Conservatoire (NL) (and multiple universities).

Alex studied as a scholar at Royal Academy of Music & the Royal College of Music and is an endorsed solo artist with Micheal Rath Trombones.

Amir is the Director of MA  and composition lecturer,  at the University of Sheffield.

He has worked with eminent musicians; such as David Alberman (Principal-London Symphony Orchestra), Grammy-nominated pianist Vicki Ray (LA Phil), Clark Rundell (Royal Liverpool Philharmonic ), Gregory Rose, Peter Manning (Royal Opera House), Christopher Rountree (LA Phil), harpist Sioned Williams (BBC Symphony Orchestra), violinist Darragh Morgan, Erika Duke-Kirkpatrick (CalArts), Anne LeBaron (CalArts), The Finzi Quartet, and the poet Ahmad Shamlou.

The composer of Oscar winner movie “The Silent Child’, was fortunate to be part of this diverse international team who presented and performed the work for the parliament members in 2018. Theresa May congratulated the impact the film has had in Parliament as well as the education minister considering a GCSE in British Sign Language for the first time ever. Not only has the film achieved huge critical acclaim but it has also changed the life of one very special young girl. In recognition of the outstanding artistic contributions of the team, the team had the honour to meet her majesty the Queen. The film has played in over 100 film festivals world wide as well as airing on prime time television on BBC One.

Amir secured commissions from London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC World Service, BBC News, British Museum, Royal Air Force Museum, CalArts, Ether Festival and others; his works have been performed at prestigious venues worldwide such as  London’s South Bank, at the Ether Festival, Sound unbound, Ashleywood Festival, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of music, California institute of the arts,  Royal Northern College of music, and on television broadcasts and commercial CDs.

In 2019  his imaginative work for Soveida Harp, Kraken piano, and Kraken Cello received high critical acclaim along with LSO musicians at LSO St Luke’s hall- London.

He has been awarded a full scholarship and gained his Ph.D. at the Royal Northern College of Music. His research relates to Performance Art, theatre, and Performativity. He was also nominated for two Gold medals in composition and he was a composition lecturer at CalArts (US).

He has designed two new instruments for a British movie “Matriarchy” and an epic series in 2021. His Soveida harp’s sound was first unveiled to the public in 2019, at a concert alongside the capital’s renowned orchestra, to critical acclaim. and he will reveal new pieces with this instrument at the 14th World Harp congress 2022 .

Paul Newland PhD MMus GMusRNCM – studied composition with Anthony Gilbert and Sir Harrison Birtwistle at Royal Northern College of Music Manchester as a James Caird Scholar, with Michael Finnissy at Royal Academy of Music London and with Simon Holt at Royal Holloway University of London with an AHRC award. He received his doctorate in 2006.

In 1999 he was awarded a Japanese government Monbusho scholarship and studied in Japan with composer Jo Kondo from ’99-’02.

Recent commissions and performances include: surface for London Symphony Orchestra commissioned for the UBS Soundscape Pioneers series and premiered at the Barbican, 5 for harpsichord, dancer and film for Jane Chapman and dancer Gregoire Meyer, time quivers and monotonous forest for ensemble Radius commissioned by the Britten Foundation premiered at the Wigmore Hall, momiji gari for Japanese guitarists Norio Sato and Toshimitsu Kamigaichi and husk for [rout] and Okeanos.

Recent performances by Exquisite Corpse include London’s Vibe Bar, Café Oto and Sonic Art Oxford. As part of an ongoing project Graft duo Exquisite Corpse created a series of semi-improvised works with choreographer Mari Frogner giving performances at Crondell St. Underground Car Park Shoreditch, The Book Club Spitalfields and The Old Police Station Deptford.

Most recently Exquisite Corpse performed common wealth a work created specifically for the derelict Commonwealth Institute building on Kensington High Street. This new piece was created in collaboration with choreographer Mari Frogner and commissioned by Fruits of the Apocalypse for their Common Sounds project as part of Kensington and Chelsea Arts Festval. Forthcoming performances include Bermondsey Street Festival London and the Theatre of Yugen San Francisco.

Current projects include a new piece nicholas givotovsky as part of ensemble [rout]’s Lost and Found project, and a web-based collaboration with the Dutch dancer Aleksandra Borys.

CD releases include: Standing Jump recorded by [rout] on [rout]one (Divine Art 29001), Butterfly dreaming… performed by Philip Howard (Divine Art 25021), 1-4 commissioned and recorded by Jane Chapman on ‘Wired’ (NMC D145), and Trance commissioned and recorded by Noszferatu (NMC D166).

Complete list of works is available at https://pnewland.moonfruit.com/

He is a recipient of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Composition (1993) and the New Millenium Composer’s Award (2010).

Her prolific output includes over twenty operas and a large catalogue of orchestral, chamber and vocal works, which are performed and broadcast throughout the world. She has composed for the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games 2012, for the Queen’s Golden and Diamond Jubilees, a specially commissioned song for COP 26, a re-imagining of Jerusalem for the Last Night of the Proms 2020. BBC Radio 3 featured her music for Composer of the Week, and she has made several radio documentaries. Errollyn collaborated with artist Sonia Boyce on her installation, Feeling Her Way, for the British Pavilion at the 2022 Venice Biennale, which won the Golden Lion prize. Her acclaimed opera, Dido’s Ghost was premiered at the Barbican in 2021 and received its US première in San Francisco in November 2023.  Recent premieres include  a Wigmore Hall debut performance of songs from The Errollyn Wallen Songbook, a violin concerto for Philippe Quint, Dances for Orchestra for Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Swedish Chamber Orchestra and Irish Chamber Orchestra, Night Thoughts, a song cycle for Dame Sarah Connolly and pianist Joseph Middleton and PARADE commissioned by Academy of St Martin in the Fields.

With Myleene Klass, Errollyn recently co-presented a three-part series, Musical Masterpieces, for SkyArts television.

Errollyn Wallen’s book, Becoming a Composer was published by Faber in November and will be translated into Spanish.

Errollyn Wallen’s recordings have travelled 7.84 million kilometers in space, completing 186 orbits around the Earth on NASA’s STS-115 mission.

Born in Belize, Errollyn gave up her training at the Dance Theater of Harlem, New York to study composition at the universities of London and Cambridge.

Errollyn’s song Daedalus appears alongside songs by Björk, Sting, Elvis Costello and Meredith Monk on the Brodsky Quartet’s recent CD, Moodswings. Her solo albums Meet Me at Harold Moores and more recently, Errollyn, feature her songs in her own voice/piano performance and in collaboration with outstanding jazz artists.

The Errollyn Wallen Songbook published by Peters Edition comprises twelve of her celebrated songs for voice with piano accompaniment.

Errollyn has composed numerous works for The Orchestra of the Swan, and in 2006 she was appointed Composer in Association.

Recent projects include her verbatim bike powered music theatre work Houses Slide, commissioned by London Sinfonietta, text by Cordelia Lynn and concept directed by Katie Mitchell; a multimedia transatlantic streaming work Distance, for soprano, Juliet Fraser and Talea Ensemble (New York). Upcoming projects include the world premiere of her opera The Blue Woman, dir. Katie Mitchell with a libretto by Laura Lomas at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in July 2022; a new multimedia music theatre work for Zubin Kanga; an opera commissioned by Ensemble Lydenskab dir. Katie Mitchell with a libretto by Sam Redway for June 2023; a multimedia music theatre work ADVERT, for herself to perform with Decoder Ensemble touring internationally.

Her work Wicked Problems, won the Royal Philharmonic Society Chamber Music Composition prize in 2021. She is also a Visiting Professor of Composition at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and a Lecturer in Composition at the Royal Northern College of Music and Trinity Laban.

Performing regularly throughout the UK and Europe, she leads the 2017 Mercury-nominated band Dinosaur who have performed at North Sea, Montreal and Molde International Jazz festivals to name a few. A highly active composer, Laura’s is equally at home writing for contemporary chamber groups and orchestras as she is writing for jazz ensembles and improvising musicians. Frequently creating works that present musical ingredients from outside the world of jazz music, within the realms of a jazz band, she has by been commissioned by the likes of the BBC Proms and the National Youth Jazz Orchestra, the BBC Concert Orchestra, Ligeti Quartet and the Northern Sinfonia.

‘Hearing Your Genes Evolve’ for string quartet featuring in a Filmtank Production, ‘The Dark Gene’ was nominated for a Berlinale Film Festival Documentary Prize. Other awards include the Chester Schirmer Fulbright Fellowship, UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers Award for my orchestral work ‘Empire States’, a Leverhulme Fellowship, a Sir Winston Churchill Fellowship, a Leverhulme Artist-in-Residence at MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, a PRS Women Make Music Award for ‘Reflected Glory’, a Major Individual Artist Award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and a PRS Composers’ Award in 2020. Her music has been recorded by Crash Ensemble and for a new film about genetics available on ‘constellations.world’

Her orchestral work was recorded for the lyric fm label ‘Irish Composers Series’ and her chamber music CD, ‘Island People’ was recorded for NMC. Richard Whitehouse in Gramophone wrote “the chamber domain seems ideally suited to her often inward and intimate manner of expression…it traverses a wide emotional range …a release that is cordially recommended to Gribbin admirers and newcomers alike.”

Works have been commissioned for, and/or programmed by many leading performers across Europe and as far afield as South Korea, including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the Janaer Philharmonie, London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Musikfabrik, EXAUDI Vocal Ensemble, soloists Roberto Fabbriciani, Nicolas Hodges, Sarah Leonard, Carin Levine, Ernesto Molinari, Ian Pace and Peter Veale, to name but a few.

Recent works include: an orchestral piece for the Jaenar Philharmonie in Germany; a solo piano piece for Susanne Kessel; a contribution to the Beethoven 250th anniversary celebrations in Bonn; in 2020, two quintets for Ensemble Crush and LUX:NM of Berlin, and a second string quartet for a concert devoted entirely to his work in Gdansk, Poland.

Pritchard’s music has been performed around the world, in Europe, America, Australia, China, Hong Kong, Mexico, New Zealand and South Korea. Festival performances have included Warsaw Autumn, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Wien Modern, ISCM World Music Days, Tanglewood (USA), International New Music Week, Daegu (S Korea), Weimar and many others worldwide. Several pieces have been broadcast by BBC, RAI, SWR and several other networks.

Gwyn Pritchard founded Uroboros Ensemble in 1982, the Reggello International Festival in 2003, and London Ear Festival in 2013, of which he is still Artistic Director. He is a Professor of Composition at Trinity Laban Conservatoire, London, and has given lectures and masterclasses at many academic institutions in Europe, America and Asia. He has written, introduced and participated in programmes for the BBC, and has contributed articles and reviews to a variety of international musical publications.

His writing appears in books and journals including The Oxford Handbook of Interactive Audio, Organised Sound (CUP) and Playing With Words: The Spoken Word in Artistic Practice (Cornerhouse) He lectures widely, including invited talks and workshops in Bangalore, Istanbul and Recife (Brazil) as well as at the BBC, Tate Modern and Tate Britain among others.

From 2003 – 2011 he led the MA in Sonic Arts at Middlesex University and also teaches regularly at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Conferred with the title of Professor in January 2017.

Sunk Losses (2002) for large orchestra, composed during a 2002 residency at the Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, won first prize in the 2003 Christoph Delz Foundation Composers’ Competition, receiving its first performance by the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra during the festival ‘Musik im 21. Jahrhundert’, in Saarbrücken in May 2003. Hayden’s Faber Music Millennium Series commission, Collateral Damage (1999), was performed in 2003 by Ensemble InterContemporain in the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.

Recent commissions include Le Retour à la Raison (2003) for solo percussion and electronics for the Ictus Ensemble, Emergence (2004, rev. 2010) for solo accordion, ensemble and live electronics for Frode Haltli and the Oslo Sinfonietta; Relative Autonomy (2004) for the London Sinfonietta; system/error (2003, rev. 2005) for Anne La Berge, Mieko Kanno and Claire Edwardes; Substratum (2006, rev. 2008) for the BBC Symphony Orchestra; schismatics (2007, rev. 2010) for electric violin and computer for Mieko Kanno; and Die Modularitäten (2007) for Ensemble Mosaik. Permutazioni / a caso (2009) for amplified ensemble received its premiere by RepertorioZero at Tage für Neue Musik, Zürich, in November 2009, and misguided (2011) for clarinet(s), saxophone(s), trumpet and trombone was premiered by the ELISION Ensemble at the ABC Iwaki Auditorium, Melbourne, Australia in March 2011. Hayden’s most recent work, surface/tension (2012) for solo oboe and ensemble, was premiered by Christopher Redgate and the Cikada Ensemble at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival 2012.

Hayden’s works have been performed at major international festivals including Ars Musica (Brussels), Bath Festival, BBC Proms, BIG Torino Biennale Arte Emergente, Gaida Festival (Vilnius), Gaudeamus New Music Week (Amsterdam), Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, ISCM Festival (Essen / Hong Kong), Klangraum (Stuttgart), MaerzMusik (Berlin), NYYD Festival (Tallinn), Rumor Festival (Utrecht), Tage für Neue Musik (Zürich), Time of Music (Viitasaari), The State of the Nation (London), Ultima (Oslo) and Warsaw Autumn.

His works have been recorded on the Divine Art, GROB, NMC, Oboe Classics, United Phoenix Records and UTS labels. A portrait CD of his works (presence/absence) was released by NMC in 2012 as part of their Debut Discs series.Other performers of Hayden’s music have included the Ensemble Antidogma, ASKO Ensemble, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Canto Battuto, El Perro Andaluz, Ensemble Cattrall, Composers Ensemble, De Ereprijs, Ensemble Ernst, Ensemble Exposé, Gaudeamus Ensemble, Gemini, Gruppe für Neue Musik Baden, IGNM Zürich, Klangforum Wien, Kokoro, Mats Scheidegger, Neophon Ensemble, NYYD Ensemble, RNCM Wind Orchestra, Steamboat Switzerland, Ensemble Surplus and Orkest de Volharding. His music has been performed regularly by ensemble [rout], which he co-founded with composers Paul Newland and Paul Whitty. He has also performed in laptop improvisation duos with Tom Hall and Urs Liska. He was appointed Reader in Music at Trinity Laban in 2013.

Qualifications/ Educational Background

• Doctor of Music (Composition) Ohio State University 1972
• MMus (Music Theory & Harmony) Florida State University, 1967
• BM (piano) Florida State University, with Honors, 1965

Post-graduate work:

• Stanford University, California 1983
• Computer Music, IRCAM, Paris 1981
• Fulbright Fellowship to work at the Experimental Music Studio, Polish Radio 1972-1974
• Electronic Music, Dartmouth College (USA), 1972
• Certificate in Conducting, Mozarteum, Austria, 1966

Teaching Experience

• Instructor – Butler University, Indianapolis, 1967-69
• Teaching Assistant – Ohio State University 1969-71
• Guest Professor, Royal College of Music, 1988 – 89
• Guest Professor, University of Texas-Austin, 1992, 1995, 2000
• Guest Professor, University of New Zealand, 1997
• Composer in Residence at Trinity College of Music in 2003 -04
• Joined the Trinity composition staff in the autumn of 2004
• Professor, Royal Academy of Music, 2007-09
• Numerous workshops, seminars, new music projects, residencies world wide since 1974.

Creative Outputs

Important commissions have included the London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Festival Hall, International Computer Association, National Portrait Gallery, The Royal Ballet, BBC Proms (Royal Albert Hall), TransAtlantic Arts Consortium, The Bath Festival, ISCM Festival, Cheltenham Festival, Belgian Radio, Warsaw Autumn and Stavanger Speculum Festival (Norway).

CDs of Montague’s works are available on NMC (UK), ASV, Continuum, Op 111, Signum and numerous other labels.

He has published over 50 articles in magazines and journal, and contributed 18 articles to The New Groves Dictionaries of Music.

His music is published by United Music Publishers, UK.

External Appointments

New Music Associate- Kettle’s Yard Art Gallery and Museum, University of Cambridge, 2010-2012 where he runs a monthly concert series.

Awards

International Piano Magazine Award: “Best New Music Piano Recording” (2006) for his CD Southern Lament (NMC)

British Composer Award Finalist, 2004

Fellowship of Leeds College of Music (FLeedsCM), 2004

Honorary Fellow- Trinity College of Music (Hon FTCL), 2001

Year of the Artist Award, 2000, UK

Distinguished Alumnus Award Ohio State University, 2000

Distinction in Computer Music, 1996 Ars ElectronicaPrix, Linz, Austria

Ernst von Dohnanyi Award for Musical Excellence, 1995

First Prize, 1994 Bourges International Competition for Electroacoustic Music, France

Winner, The London Dance and Performance Award for Outstanding Creative Achievement in Music, 1988

Fulbright Fellow, Warsaw, 1972-1974

Matt has also gained a reputation as one of the most versatile conductors in London, often being called upon to lead ‘cross-over’ projects with broad stylistic demands. He has conducted the Royal Northern Sinfonia, Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra, London Concert Orchestra, Manchester Concert Orchestra, United Strings of Europe, Engines Orchestra and many others.

Alongside his composing and conducting career, Matt regularly works an arranger and orchestrator for pop artists such as Jorja Smith, Cleo Sol, Dizzee Rascal, Giorgio Moroder, SAULT, Maverick Sabre, Lanterns on the Lake and many others.

A passionate educator, Matt lectures in orchestration at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance and in Jazz Composition and Jazz History at Goldsmiths University. He’s also worked as a visiting tutor at Leeds Conservatoire, Royal Academy of Music, National Youth Jazz Orchestra, Julian Joseph Jazz Academy and many other education institutions.