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Home > Music > Principal study > Composition > Highlights, successes & alumni

Above: Head of Department of Composition, Professor Julian Philips, talks to acclaimed composer Michel van der Aa

Highlights, successes & alumni

Recent department highlights include:

  • The department has a longstanding partnership with EXAUDI and PlusMinus, and composers work with both ensembles as first-year Masters students 
  • Q&As with visiting composers, including recent Q&As with Sir Harrison Birtwistle, John Adams, Louis Andriessen, Michel van der Aa, Steve Reich, Helmut Lachenmann, Tristan Murail and Judith Weir 
  • Each year, Composition students work with writers from the Opera Making and Writing course on Voiceworks, a collaborative writer/composer/singer project culminating in vocal works performed at Wigmore Hall 
  • The Composition Department has a major partnership in place with the Royal Opera House for the development of contemporary opera. Every two years, the Royal Opera House stages a new opera by a Guildhall School/Royal Opera House Composer in Residence, while students on the MA in Opera Making and Writing programme (see page 36) enjoy formative creative opportunities at the Royal Opera House 
  • Each year, MMus students collaborate with choreographers at London Contemporary Dance School to develop new works which receive two public performances at The Place, the UK’s premiere centre for contemporary dance 

Recent successes

Na’ama Zisser (Guildhall School/Royal Opera House Composer-in-Residence 2015-18)

In 2015, Na’ama Zisser was appointed as Philip Venables’ successor as Guildhall School/Royal Opera House Composer-in-Residence. Her new opera, Mamzer Bastard, exploring the relationship between Jewish Kantorial singing and traditional operatic singing, was staged by the Royal Opera House at Hackney Empire in June 2018.

Philip Venables (Guildhall School/Royal Opera House Composer-in-Residence 2013-16)

Philip Venables’ new operatic version of Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis received its world premiere at the Lyric Hammersmith in May 2016, in a new production staged by the Royal Opera House, and went on to win the UK Theatre Award for Achievement in Opera, the Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Large-Scale Composition, and a British Composer Award. Venables’ latest work, The Gender Agenda, premiered at the re-opening of the Queen Elizabeth Hall, before performances across Europe.

LSO Panufnik Composers Scheme

In recent years, Guildhall School graduate composers featured in this scheme have included Gonçalo Gato, James Hoyle, Daniel Kidane, Jack Sheen, Donghoon Shin, Michael Taplin and Alex Tay.

Oliver Leith (Composition 2014)

Oliver Leith has had works performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Orchestra of Opera North, and London Sinfonietta. He is a participant in Sound and Music’s Next Wave scheme and a member of the LSO Soundhub scheme. In 2014 he was awarded a Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize, and in 2016 won a British Composer Award.

Raymond Yiu (Composition 2014)

Raymond Yiu’s work includes The London Citizen Exceedingly Injured, written for the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and The World Was Once All Miracle, which was premiered by Roderick Williams, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sir Andrew Davis in 2018. His piece Symphony was premiered by the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the 2015 BBC Proms season. Northwest Wind, written for and premiered by Lontano, won a British Composer Award in 2010.

Edmund Finnis (Composition 2013)

Edmund Finnis has enjoyed particularly close associations with the London Sinfonietta, who have variously performed, toured and recorded six of his works, and the London Contemporary Orchestra, with whom he was Composer-in-Association from 2013 to 2016. In 2017, his orchestral work The Air, Turning received its premiere by the BBC National Orchestra of Scotland, conducted by Ilan Volkov. Finnis received a Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Artists in 2012, and was Composer-in-Residence at the 2013 Chelsea Music Festival in New York City.

Mark Simpson (Composition 2012)

Mark Simpson is Composer in Association of the BBC Philharmonic. His oratorio The Immortal was premiered by the BBC Philharmonic at the 2015 Manchester International Festival to immediate critical acclaim. Other works with orchestra include Israfel, premiered by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, sparks commissioned for the 2012 Last Night of the Proms and A mirror-fragment… written for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. His first opera Pleasure was commissioned by Opera North, the Royal Opera and Aldeburgh Music and premiered in 2016. His music is published by Boosey & Hawkes.

Francisco Coll (Composition 2011)

Francisco Coll made his BBC Proms debut in 2016 with Four Iberian Miniatures for violin and chamber orchestra by Augustin Hadelich and the Britten Sinfonia under Thomas Adès. The same year saw the premiere of Mural by the Orchestre Philharmonique Luxembourg under Gustavo Gimeno, and a new Harpsichord Concerto for Mahan Esfahani and Britten Sinfonia. Coll’s opera Café Kafka received its London premiere at the Royal Opera House in 2014. His music is published by Faber Music.

Matthew Kaner (Composition 2010)

Matthew Kaner was BBC Radio 3’s Embedded Composer in 3 during their 70th anniversary season in 2016; his residency involved the writing of over ten new works, which were premiered on air throughout the period. His orchestral work Encounters was premiered at the Lucerne Festival in 2017 with Jeffrey Means and the Festival Academy Orchestra. Matthew was the recipient of a Roche Young Commission from 2015-17, and won the Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize in 2013. He is a professor of composition at Guildhall School.

Bushra El Turk (Composition 2006)

Selected by the BBC as one of the most inspiring 100 Women of Today, Bushra has written various works for the concert hall, dance, theatre and multi-media, performed and broadcast on radio and television worldwide. Her pieces have been performed by ensembles including the London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Royal Opera House, London Sinfonietta, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Manchester Camerata, and more. Her music is published by Composers Edition.

Christina Athinodorou (Composition 2005)

Christina Athinodorou’s work has been featured in festivals worldwide, including the Biennale di Venezia, Grafenegg Festival, MITO SettembreMusica, ISCM World New Music Days-Wien Modern, Salle Pleyel, Onassis Cultural Center, Music Biennale Zagreb, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, deFilharmonie Chamber Series. She won the Prix de Jury and the Coup de Coeur du Publique in the composition competition Île de Créations in 2013 for her orchestral work, Interméde pour une mer jamais vue, which is published by Éditions Durand.

Alumni include:

 

    • Mica Levi
    • Oliver Leith
    • Philip Venables
    • Jack Sheen
    • Bushra El-Turk
    • Daniel Kidane
    • Raymond Yiu
    • Edmund Finnis
    • Mark Simpson
    • Sylvia Lim
    • Na’ama Zisser
    • Francisco Coll
    • Lara Agar
    • Matthew Kaner
    • Christina Athinodorou

 

 

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