6 New Composers Announced for LSO Schemes

Clockwise from top left: Alex Ho, Jamie Man, Dónal Sarsfield, Amir Konjani, Daniel Kidane and Keting Sun.

6 New Composers Announced for LSO Schemes

Composers to have work performed at LSO concerts in 2019.

The London Symphony Orchestra has announced six new composers for its LSO Soundhub and LSO Jerwood Composer+ programmes, and two composers who continue onto the next phase of LSO Soundhub.

LSO Soundhub is a scheme for artists to try out new ideas and develop existing work. Four selected composers – Alex Ho, Jamie Man, Dónal Sarsfield and Keting Sun – will showcase their new works in a concert on 20 July 2019.

The LSO Jerwood Composer+ scheme supports early career composers in delivering chamber-scale concerts in the Jerwood Hall at LSO St Luke’s, including work of their own. Amir Konjani and Daniel Kidane will present concerts in Spring 2019.

Lillie Harris and Robin Haigh both took part in the 2017/18 LSO Soundhub Phase I and now continue for a further year, developing new work for a showcase on 9 February 2019.

Find out more about the composers and listen to their work below. For more on the LSO schemes, visit lso.co.uk.

Alex Ho was one of Sound and Music’s ‘New Voices 2018’. He has had compositions performed by the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, Psappha Ensemble, Juice Ensemble and Roderick Williams, and was awarded joint-winner of the Philip Bates Composition Competition in 2016.

Composer and conductor Jamie Man’s first opera PLAY: Episodes in Subspace was commissioned by the Gulbenkian Orchestra (Lisbon) and was premiered in 2016. Man was Assistant Conductor to Oliver Knussen in 2010 and later De Nationale Opera (Amsterdam) for Claude Vivier’s Kopernikus. She has conducted at the Aldeburgh Music festival, as well as the UK premiere of Philip Glass’ Les Enfants Terribles.

Dónal Sarsfield, from County Mayo in Ireland, has had his work performed by the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Chamber Choir Ireland, Scottish Ensemble, Crash Ensemble and at festivals such as the San Francisco Tape Music Festival, Sonorities Belfast and ISCM World Music Days. Sarsfield has also contributed several articles to The Journal of Music

Keting Sun has composed music for ensembles including the CHROMA Ensemble, Tritium Trio, The CoMA Ensemble, the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra and the National Chinese Orchestra Taiwan. She has recently collaborated on projects with the Wellcome Collection, the Bristol School of Animation and Leeds Lieder Festival, as well as artists such as Paul Morley, Huw Watkins, Liam Byrne and Michael Foyle.

Amir Konjani is a composer, performance artist and situation maker. His works have won many awards including an Oscar in the 90th Academy Awards 2018 for the Silent Child movie. Konjani has written for the BBC, British Museum, Royal Air Force Museum, Ether Festival, Northwest festival and CalArts, and his works have been performed at London’s Southbank Centre, Royal College of Music, Royal Academy of Music and Queen Elizabeth Hall.

Daniel Kidane’s music has been performed extensively across the UK and abroad as well as being broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Recent projects include the premiere of his orchestral work Zulu by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra; a new work for the CBSO Youth Orchestra, inspired by Grime music; a chamber work for the Cheltenham Festival which draws inspiration from Jungle music; a song cycle commissioned by Leeds Lieder, and a piece for the Chineke! Orchestra, premiered at the reopening of Queen Elizabeth Hall.

Lillie Harris graduated from the Royal College of Music in 2016, winning the Elgar Memorial Prize for her final portfolio. Her pieces have been workshopped and performed by ensembles including Psappha, the Gaudier Ensemble, and Ensemble Recherche, and in 2015–16 she was selected for the first RSNO Composers Hub, from which her orchestral work remiscipate was chosen to be performed in their season finale concerts.

In 2017, at the age of 24, Robin Haigh was one of the youngest ever recipients of a British Composer Award for his recorder quintet, In Feyre Foreste. Forthcoming projects include pieces for the Ligeti Quartet, the Berkeley Ensemble, the Hermes Experiment, and Festival Stradella. He was recently composer-in-residence for the Sage Gateshead’s Young Sinfonia.

Published on 3 September 2018

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