Whilst 2020 is likely to be dominated by Beethoven’s 250th, there are also several living composers who have significant birthdays in 2020. These include the

This year’s Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival features more than 60 events over 10 days. The Composer in Residence is Swede Hanna Hartman, with a supporting

Sound Festival (23 October – 3 November) takes place in venues across Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire, Scotland.  This year the festival focuses on the oboe, with

Composers Richard James Harvey and Liz Lane Two contemporary choral works celebrating St Alban and the Martyrs will be performed in St Albans Cathedral on

Ultima, Oslo’s festival of contemporary music take place in a number of the Norwegian capital’s performance spaces, including large auditoriums, churches, theatres and art galleries.

This year’s Presteigne Festival has an American flavour, with one of the two composers’-in-residence being composer/harpist Hannah Lash. She will be the subject of a portrait concert

The Proms programme always raises debate. This year the focus has been on the number of female composers represented—whilst there is a better male/female balance,

Cheltenham Music Festival (5th–14th July, venues in Cheltenham, UK), this year celebrating its 75th birthday, remains one of the UK’s most imaginative not to mention prestigious

Tête à Tête, one of the the best places to experience new opera, has just announced its 2019 festival programme.  Always responsive to the artistic

The Holland Festival (29th May–June 23rd) The Holland Festival explores cutting edge dance, film, music, opera, theatre, visual arts and multidisciplinary collaborations. This year Stockhausen is

The Tectonics Festival takes place over the weekend of 4th–5th May in Glasgow. On the first day harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani will perform recent works by Anahita Abbasi,

The concerts of the Barcelona Obertura Spring Festival (4th–17th March) take place in three magnificent venues: the Liceu Gran Teatre, one of the biggest opera venues in

Plymouth’s Contemporary Music Festival (22nd–24th February) has been winning plaudits over the last few years, with Sound and Music’s The Sampler saying calling it ‘One of the UK’s

From the point of view of a UK citizen, it is hard not to look forward to the coming weeks and months without a sense

This years’s Spitalfields Music Festival (1st–9th Dec) will examine the connections that span many centuries and genres of English music, seeking out connections between old and new. 

This year’s Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (16th–25th November) will feature 15 world premieres, including works by Scott McLaughlin, Nicole Lizée, Christopher Fox, Anna Meredith, Catherine Kontz, Monty

An immersive 9-day music series, Spitalfields Music Festivalmarries early and contemporary music. Now in its 42nd year, the festival will once again bring artists, audiences and

It’s gratifying to find a new music festival on one’s doorstep, so I make special mention today of  Festival 20/21, which runs from 24th September to

The Proms draw to a close on Saturday with one final premiere, Songs of Darkness by Roxanna Panufnik.  This then serves as a reminder to catch-up on

Described by The Wire Magazine as “a welcome addition to London’s already blossoming contemporary composition scene”, Borough New Music has announced its next season of concerts, from Series

The Presteigne Festival takes place in the picturesque surroundings of the Welsh Marches just about on the Welsh side of the Powys/Herefordshire border.  This year the theme

The theme at this year’s festival is ‘childhood’, with many projects aimed specifically at the younger generation. This includes Schraffur by festival composer-in-residence Fritz Hauser. It will include

Olly Knussen’s marvellous Flourish With Fireworks, performed as an opener at the First Night of the Proms, was a seemly way to mark the sad news

Tête à Tête director Bill-Bankes Jones describes opera as ‘the most visceral of art forms. Unless its driver is something that forces a raw primal cri

This year’s Cheltenham Music Festival packs an impressive 65 events into its two weeks, with plenty of new music to boot.  There’s a chance to

New works seemed a bit thin on the ground at 2017’s BBC Proms, so it is good to see a healthy 19 world premieres this year.

St. Magnus International Music Festival The St. Magnus International Festival runs from 22–28th June, with its usual mix of classical music, theatre, dance, poetry, bands, visual art,

The 2018 Aldeburgh Festival celebrates Britten’s links to America via the music of Leonard Bernstein, whose centenary it is this year. Britten and Bernstein had a remarkably

The Techtonics Festival (5–6th) at City Halls, Glasgow prides itself on being being international, this year being no exception, with performers and composers from Japan, Lithuania, France,

The interface between music, engineering and the life sciences is an ongoing area of research at Plymouth University’s Interdisciplinary Centre for Computer Music Research (ICCMR).

This year Radio France’s Festival Présences (6th–11th February) celebrates the music of composer, organist and improvisor Thierry Escaich. As well as performances of existing works,

After writing the C:T review of 2017, I found myself reflecting on the things that were predicted to happen in 2017 but didn’t. Chief among

The Spitalfields Winter Festival runs from 2nd to 9th December. Artistic Curator André de Ridder explains that this year the focus is on ‘making each event, each

The fortieth Huddersfield Contemporary Music festival (17th November—26th), features 31 world premieres and 103 UK premieres across 33 events. One of the first works featured will be

Borough New Music was founded in January of this year with the aim of celebrating the music of today and of living composers. Following its first

September sees the return of Simon Rattle to London as LSO Music Director, an event that will be celebrated with a series of Barbican concerts

Tête à Tête kicks off tomorrow in London, running until 13th August. I’ve long wanted to experience the festival, probably the UK’s liveliest forum for new

Trying to summarise concerts at this, the busiest time of year, is a fool’s errand. What follows, then, is the merest scratch of the surface

Several big festivals to look forward to next month. In Amsterdam the Holland Festival (3–25 June) contains a mixture of theatre, dance, music, visual arts and film.

Tickets for the BBC Proms go on sale at 9am on Saturday 13th May. The full programme is available, here. If you wish to view the

May begins with a BBC Total Immersion Day dedicated to the music of Edgard Varèse at Barbican on 6th. There will be a talk at 12pm, a concert

A belated happy birthday to Tristan Murail, who turned 70 on 11th March. At a time when composer birthdays are marked with endless retrospectives and

Leuven City Centre It is with some exhaustion that I have just updated the concert listings here on C:T. Another period of change sees me now living

On 25th March at The Barbican is the chance to hear Shostakovich’s piano score New Babylon, which will accompany a screening of the film. This is

Robert Matthew-Walker Robert Matthew-Walker is a fascinating figure. In the 60s he served in the army, including in North Africa, studied in Paris with Darius

February night not be the best time of year for festivals, but there are two decent events this month. The first, in Paris, is Festival Présences‘ Kaija

© Nick Seluk theawkwardyeti.com Even after my roundup of a tumultuous year, 2016 had more bad news in store. December saw the deaths of George Michael and actress

December is not traditionally known for its music festivals, which makes the Spitalfields Winter Festival, which this year runs from 4th–11th, a welcome anomaly. There are

As well as the new Michael Berkeley carol for Kings (see my previous blog post) there are a number of contemporary music Christmas options to

I have already posted summaries of two major festivals in November: the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and Wien Modern. Another worth checking is the Cambridge Music Festival in the UK

Something a bit different for half term. If you are in the area, why not pop along to the Manchester Science Festival (ends 30th October), where a

From 7—16th October Venice Biennale’s International Festival of Contemporary Music marks its sixtieth anniversary with a programme of 26 events that feature 45 world premieres, 27 Italian

The Proms continue until 10th September, though with just one more world premiere to look forward to: Tom Harrold’s Raze on the Last Night. I am a

I mentioned before that there is no definitive list of all the premieres available at the BBC Proms on the BBC website. So, after a

One disappointment in this year’s BBC Proms (15th July–10th September) is that there will be no first night premiere. It has been a great advert for the

The New York Times described the inaugural NY Philharmonic Biennial as ‘Perhaps the most ambitious and extensive contemporary-music festival yet overseen by an American orchestra.’ The 27

There is something poignant about a world premiere of a composer who is no longer with us. Such is the case with the first performance of Peter

The Bangor Music Festival (1st–6th March) begins with a St. David’s Day choral extravaganza performed by Côr Glanaethwy. The programme includes music by a number of living

A very happy birthday to Henri Dutilleux, that other great post-war French composer, who would have been 100 on Friday. If you are in Paris

The Shadows of Time, Le temps l’horloge, Mystère de l’instant. Henri Dutillleux was a composer always interested in the concept of time. And, as I write this

Christmas may come earlier every year, but new music seems to be developing a bit of resilience to the onslaught of carolling, Messiahs and candlelit

As well as the Manca Festival here in Nice, there are two other major music European festivals to look forward to in November. The opening concert of Wien

After a wet Pembrokeshire summer I find myself in Nice, capital of the French Riviera. My reasons for being here aren’t entirely (or even partly)

Max Richter’s new album on DG, the 8 hour Sleep is a gigantic set of variations that explore the way music can interact with states of consciousness.

The BBC Proms got underway with, quite literally, a bang on Friday with the first night premiere of Gary Carpenter’s Dadaville, fireworks and all. I notice

If you want to find premieres at the 2015 BBC Proms you have a couple of options. On the Proms website, there is a list of

July sees the beginning of two long summer festivals. The BBC Proms runs from 17th July to 12th September, with the first night world première

I was sorely tempted to head from Basel to Prague in May: a month in a beautiful (and relatively cheap) European city with a major

A concert last night by students of the Hochschule für Musik revealed much about standards in Swiss higher education. The ambitious programme contained Cage’s First Construction

If you’ve not already been, Christian Marclay’s solo exhibition continues throughout March at the White Cube Bermondsey. It features his new video installation Pub Crawl in which he

From March 19th–22nd the biennial London Ear Festival of Contemporary Music is holding a small series of events to keep the spirit of the festival going in its fallow

UK premières begin next month with a new work by Ben Comeau, winner of the Cambridge University Composers’ Workshop, which will be playedby the Britten Sinfonia

The Peninsula Arts Contemporary Music Festival (27th February–1st March) celebrates its 10th anniversary at the end of February. The theme this year, is ‘Biomusic’. Professor Eduardo Miranda,

I don’t know about you, but I’m always relieved when the Christmas season comes to an end. The Christmas tree, such an attractive sight at

If you are in Scotland today and are suffering from post referendum exhaustion you can cheer yourself up with the thought of the imminent arrival

September sees 80th birthday celebrations for Peter Maxwell Davies and Harrison Birtwistle at the BBC Proms. On 6th Septemberthe Birmingham Contemporary Music Group under Oliver Knussen

The BBC Proms get going today. You can see my July picks in an earlier blog post. Looking further ahead, August concerts include the London première

You have to work a little to find the contemporary music amongst the long list of composers represented at the 2014 BBC Proms (18th July – 13th

Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic have big plans for their inaugural contemporary music festival, which has just got underway in New York: “We

Harrison Birtwistle turns 80 in July, with birthday concerts starting in earnest this month. One of the best places to enjoy the celebrations is at

It’s been a busy couple of weeks: leaving one of my jobs, moving house and preparing to leave the country. I shall be spending a

The London Ear Festival of Contemporary Music, run by composers Gwyn Pritchard and Andrea Cavallari, is now in its second year. Over four days, from 27th–30th

Christmas, for me, has been a time for reflection, for planning ahead and hatching plans for the year to come: compose more, travel more, get

It’s already time to start looking ahead to see what the New Year holds in store for contemporary music. I will do a full preview

There are a few contemporary music treats to enjoy before the classical music world dissolves into a frenzy of yuletide bonhomie.  On Friday 6th December there

Time to enjoy 2013’s last gasp of contemporary concerting before the festive season kicks in… November sees the climax of the Britten centenary celebrations, with

Following their success with the 2011 International Flute Event, Arcomis (Arts Commissioning) have followed-up with a festival dedicated to brass music. The Arcomis International Brass Event takes place from

I start with a reminder that, as well as reading this monthly summary of upcoming contemporary music events, readers should also check CT’s concert diary, to

As well as many interesting individual concerts of contemporary music, May sees the earnest beginnings of festival season. The Vale of Glamorgan Festival runs from 9th–18th May in various venues

Image from The Firework-Maker’s Daughter It’s hard not to feel cheerful at this time of year. Today, as I look out of my window, I see

I’m a pretty ordinary music lover and a very conflicted composer. As a music lover I am just as likely to listen to Monteverdi, Purcell,

There are several events worth highlighting in February’s (newly updated) concert listings. Total Immersion has been an enormously successful project over recent years, giving audiences a

Happy New Year to you all! If you’re feeling over-indulged on ample sufficiencies of turkey, Christmas pud and mince pies, here’s a repast of a

I’ve just updated CT’s concert diary for November. A few things, however, deserve special mention. The Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the UK’s largest specialising in this genre, runs

Having written a eulogy to the music of William Mathias not many weeks ago, I managed to forget to mention the upcoming North Wales International Music

There are several festivals that feature new music in September. I’ve included a selection of concerts from them in my monthly round-up on CT’s concert page.

Okay, I admit it: hosting the Olympics was not such a bad idea after all. As I’ve watched I have found myself whooping, shouting, crying

Whilst I’ve just updated CT’s concert listings for August, there is such a range of concerts this month that I would also recommend checking out individual

A relatively quiet month in terms of CD releases, but one nevertheless marked by some interesting finds.  Naxos, as ever, has released a clutch of

I did – just – manage to update CT’s concert directory in time for June a few days ago. However, I also wanted to point out a

I’ve spent the last few days listening to a couple of new CDs. The first involves violinist Hilary Hahn, whose recording of Ives violin sonatas I

A summer of flag waving begins in a week with the official celebrations of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee on 2-5th June, followed, on July 27th,

Now here’s a funny thing. Last year the BBC Proms website had an excellent guide to the new music that was to appear during the

A little belatedly, perhaps, I’ve just updated the CT concert diary for April. As ever, the list is not exhaustive, and members are encouraged to

Bregenz Staging of Judith Weir’s Miss Fortune As promised last month, my monthly roundup of concerts has now been moved to CT’s own concert diary page.

I’ve just augmented CT’s concert listings with my own summary of concerts that I have found hither and thither. As usual, however, I’ve not listed individual concerts

A slightly different look to the concert round-up this month. Some will notice that the information here is presented in a very similar way to CT’s own concert

Happy New Year to all! Here’s a little preview of what 2012 holds for contemporary music, minus December (for my thoughts on that, see here). I

The Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (hcmf//), one of the most important of its type in Europe, runs from Friday 18thNovember–Sunday 27th November. This year there is a special

The North Wales International Music Festival begins on 24th September. The programme focuses largely on older repertoire, though there is a composer portrait concert dedicated to the music of Paul

Music by living composers at the BBC Proms continues in August with performances of Robin Holloway’s Fifth Concerto for Orchestra (4th Aug), Gabriel Prokofiev’s Concerto for Turntables and Orchestra (6th Aug),

Though I’ve already mentioned them in previous posts, I’ll start with two festivals, one already underway, another about to begin. The Cheltenham Music Festival continues until 10th

As the summer festival season gets going, here are my new music concert picks for June. The St. Magnus Music Festival (www.stmagnusfestival.com) runs from 17th–22nd

Seventy-four concerts, thirteen world premières, six UK premières and eleven BBC commissions. It could only be the Proms. So what has ‘The World’s Greatest Classical

If you want two weeks of great music with some thoughtful programming, the Cheltenham Music Festival (29th June-10th July) could be just the ticket. Aficionados of new