"Sylvia Lim (b. 1992) is a Malaysian Australian composer based in London. Her music has been described as "ethereal" (The Times), "undeniably beautiful" (ABC Classic), "strange" (TEMPO) and "playful and profound" (BBC Radio 3). She is interested in the materiality of sound, notions of close listening, perception, rawness and instability.

Sylvia's music has been performed by Royal Northern Sinfonia (James Weeks), Ensemble 10:10 (Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Jack Sheen), BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (Ilan Volkov, Tectonics), EXAUDI, Mira Benjamin (Music We'd Like to Hear), Ben Smith, Prague Quiet Music Collective, Rubiks Collective, The Hermes Experiment, Tabea Debus & Samuele Telari, and principal players of the Aurora Orchestra.

Her music has been played at Wigmore Hall, Cafe OTO, Wandelweiser's Klangraum (Düsseldorf), the London Contemporary Music Festival, CoMA Festival and BEAST FEaST, and broadcast on BBC Radio 3, ABC Classic and KFAI. Her portrait albums have been released on Another Timbre and Sawyer Editions.

She was on the LPO Young Composers Programme and Psappha's Composing for Piano scheme in 2019/20, the RPS Composers Programme as a Rosie Johnson RPS / Wigmore Hall Apprentice Composer in 2020/21, and Orkest De Ereprijs's 28th Young Composers Meeting (The Netherlands, 2022). Sylvia is the 2022 winner of Rubiks Collective's Pythia Prize.

Sylvia completed her PhD ('Exploring organic decay through sound') at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where she is now a Professor of Composition and Research Fellow. She also teaches composition at The Purcell School."

"Born and raised in the US, Natasha is a London based cellist and composer with a diverse practice in the arts. As a player she loves contemporary repertoire, early music, free improvisation and folk music. Natasha regularly performs, composes and collaborates with artists spanning a wide range of backgrounds such as Kate Tempest, Gaslamp Killer, Kanye West and Hofesh Shechter, with performances at Sadler's Wells, the Southbank Centre, the Royal Court Theatre, the Barbican Centre, the Melbourne International Festival, Glastonbury Festival and Madison Square Gardens. Natasha is also a co-founder of contemporary music ensemble Jetsam, listed in Folk Radio UK's Best Albums 2014 for their release of A Dream Life of Hackney Marshes.

Natasha teaches at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and co-leads the Barbican Creative Learning ensemble Future Band. As a leader, composer and in leading training courses she has worked with the New York Philharmonic, the Tokyo College of Music, Peabody Institute of Music, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the BBC Symphony Orchestra among others. Natasha loves long walks, reading, dancing, playing the guqin and making music with others."

"Mira Benjamin is a Canadian violinist, researcher and new-music instigator.

She performs new and experimental music, with a special interest in microtonality & tuning practice. She actively commissions music from composers at all stages of their careers, and develops each new work through multiple performances. Current collaborations include new works by Anna Höstman, Scott McLaughlin, Amber Priestley, Taylor Brook and James Weeks.

Since 2011, Mira has co-directed NU:NORD - a project-based music and performance network which instigates artistic exchanges and encourages community building between music creators from Canada, Norway & the UK. To date NU:NORD has engaged 79 artists and commissioned 62 new works. Through this initiative, Mira hopes to offer a foundation from which Canadian artists can reach out to artistic communities overseas, and provide a conduit through which UK & Norwegian artists can access Canada's rich art culture.

Originally from Vancouver, British Columbia, Mira lived for ten years in Montréal, where she was a member of Quatuor Bozzini. Since 2014 she has resided in London (UK), where she regularly performs with ensembles such as Apartment House, Decibel, and the London Contemporary Orchestra Soloists, and is currently the Duncan Druce Scholar in Music Performance at the University of Huddersfield.

Mira is the recipient of the 2016 Virginia Parker Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts. The prize is awarded annually to a Canadian musician in recognition of their contribution to the artistic life in Canada and internationally."

"Born in Canada, clarinetist Heather Roche trained in England, lived in Germany for 7 years and now lives in London.

She has performed at some of the major European festivals, including musikFest (Berlin), BachFest (Leipzig), Musica Nova (Helsinki), Acht Brücken (Cologne), the International Computer Music Conference (Huddersfield, Ljubljana), the Dias de Música Electroacústica (Seia, Portugal) and the Agora Festival (Ircam, Paris). She has also performed solo programmes at the Zagreb Music Biennale, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the New York Electroacoustic Symposium, at CIRMMT (Montreal), Unerhörte Musik (Berlin), Eavesdropping (London), and with the Birmingham Electroacoustic Sound Theatre (BEAST).

She has performed with ensembles and orchestras including Musik Fabrik (Cologne), the WDR Orchestra (Cologne), mimitabu (Gothenburg), the London Symphony Orchestra (London), ensemble Garage (Cologne), ensemble interface (Berlin), the Riot Ensemble (London), the Alisios Camerata (Zagreb), and ensemble proton (Bern). She also plays across the UK in a trio with Carla Rees (flutes) and Xenia Pestova (piano) and in 2015 formed an duo with the accordionist Eva Zöllner, with whom she has played across Germany, the UK and in Portugal. She is a founding member of hand werk, a 6-person chamber music ensemble based in Cologne, and worked with the group from 2010-2017.

She has solo CDs out on the HCR/NMC and Métier labels. Please see the Discography for further details.

In 2014 she was awarded a DIVA (Danish International Visiting Artists Fellowship), and lived in Copenhagen for two months.

Since 2016 she has acted as the Reviews Editor for TEMPO, a quarterly journal for contemporary music published by Cambridge University Press.

Her website is host to one of the most widely read new music blogs on the Internet. In 2017 it had 75,000 hits from around the world. She successfully crowdfunded in 2014 in order to host her first composition competition. Six young composers were chosen out of 270 applicants to write new pieces, which were premiered in 2016.

She is a fervent advocate of collaboration, and her PhD research at the University of Huddersfield (under the supervision of Dr. Philip Thomas) explored the nature of dialogue within performer-composer relationships. She has given workshops in instrumental technique and/or iPad use in performance all over Europe, for example in London, Munich and Copenhagen.

Heather completed her Masters of Music (Orchestral Training) in 2006 at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, studying under Joy Farrall and Laurent Ben Slimane, in addition to conducting with Sian Edwards. Following her degree she completed residencies with the International Ensemble Modern Academy, at IMPULS in Graz and with ensemble recherche in Freiburg, the Darmstadt Summer Courses 2008 and 2010 and the International Ensemble Modern Academy in Innsbruck, Austria. She has performed in masterclasses with Michael Collins, Ernesto Molinari and Shizuyo Oka, to name a few. She completed her BMus in 2005 at the University of Victoria, Canada, studying under Patricia Kostek."

"Michelle Hromin is a Croatian-American multidisciplinary artist, specializing in contemporary clarinet performance, writing, and curation. She uses mediums such as spoken word, electronics, and improvisation in her artistic practice to explore her identity, heritage, and human relationships.

Recent engagements include touring "A Steve Reich Celebration" with the Colin Currie Group in Japan and across the US and performing at the BBC Proms. As an in-demand clarinetist, she has performed in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Tokyo Opera City, Iklectik, and Cafe Oto and worked with groups such as eighth blackbird, English National Opera, London Mozart Players, Fifth House Ensemble, Lisa Bielawa's Broadcast from Here series, Audentia Ensemble, and International Contemporary Ensemble.

An advocate for new music, Michelle has commissioned and performed dozens of new works, including as a 2022 Fellow with Bang on a Can and 2023 eighth blackbird Creative Lab Fellow. Her 2021 performance project Kalendar: 12 Miniatures for 2021 brought awareness to her Croatian heritage through improv-based clarinet works informed by the months of the Slavic calendar. The two-volume EP was self-released on Bandcamp.

Michelle is the Artistic Director of standard issue, a new music collective aiming to explore the archetypal boundaries within music and its culture. She performs, curates, and commissions new works with the group to promote experimental music accessibility and inclusivity.

As a writer, she enjoys analyzing human connection and emotion within today's creative ecosystem. She is a contributing writer for I Care If You Listen, Which Sinfonia, New Music Box, and runs a blog called About That."

"Ben Smith is a London-based composer and performer specialising in contemporary music. He is interested in - amongst other things - phenomenological and semiotic approaches to musical analysis, and compositional encounters with silence and repetition. Ben was a Junior Fellow at Guildhall School of Music & Drama from 2020-2022, where he previously studied with Laurence Crane, Rolf Hind, and James Weeks. His recording of Evan Johnson's complete piano music was released on all that dust in November 2021."

"Kerry is a musician who lives in east London. He trained as a pianist and now also performs on keyboards and live electronics.

Kerry has performed at Audiograft, Chisenhale Arts Club, Kämmer Klang, Rational Rec, Borealis Festival, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, ISCM World Music Days, Kings Place, City of London Festival, Music We'd Like To Hear, Nonclassical and in groups Apartment House, ELISION, Plus-Minus Ensemble and Ensemble Offspring.

Kerry studied piano with Stephanie McCallum at the University of Sydney (where he also studied composition) and at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He completed a doctorate at the Royal College of Music where he studied piano with Andrew Ball and researched Performance practices of music for piano with electroacoustics. He has also dabbled with the other side, playing with bands Apopalyptics, Casiokids and Half-handed Cloud and the Welcome Wagon.

Kerry also directs music at Grace Church Hackney (which meets in Hoxton), where they are happy to use ancient chants, traditional hymns and new works with choirs, bands, electronics, objects and the like."

"Simon Limbrick's involvement in music embraces performance, composing and education.

He was a member of the cult systems orchestra The Lost Jockey and Man Jumping, recording for EG Editions and creating scores for leading dance companies, Second Stride, London Contemporary Dance, Rosemary Lee and Sue MacLennan. He has been in demand as a percussionist performing all over the world with the Nash Ensemble, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Endymion Ensemble, Composers' Ensemble and Fibonacci Sequence as well as recording with artists such as Alabama3, Gavin Bryars Pete Lockett and for Blue Note Records. He has been guest principal with the LSO and worked under conductors, Leonard Bernstein, Oliver Knussen, Simon Rattle and Tom Ades. He has featured on film and television including documentaries about Steve Reich and Kenneth MacMillan's award winning Judas Tree.Compositions created for him include works by Javier Alvarez, Brian Elias (Kenneth MacMillan's last ballet The Judas Tree), Vic Hoyland and Andrew Poppy. He has performed the world-premieres of solo pieces by James Dillon, Frederic Rzewski , Claude Vivier, Philip Cashian, Thea Musgrave, Harry de Wit, Howard Skempton, Michael Wolters and Ed Kelly. His solo performances have been broadcast by the BBC, RAI, Radio France, Dutch TV and radio.

Recently, he performed his own concerto Bulls Yard and Stockhausen's Zyklus at the Sage, Gateshead,(see review) solo steel-pan in Brian Elias' Judas Tree at Royal Opera House, London, in 2010 and directed his mixed-media project, dot-machine, a web-based musical construction accessible on www.marimbo.com. He created a 24 hour long piece surfaces with the composer James Saunders, with financial assistance from the Arts Council of Great Britain and premiered at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in 2011.

In education, Simon has led workshops since 1982, and been a returning resident artist in festivals and organisations, including Blackheath Concert Halls, Aldeburgh Music, Sound It Out , Spitalfields Festival. Workshop projects have been led by him throughout Europe. As a fully-qualified teacher, he has led Music and Performing Arts in Secondary Schools for five years. He has led school and community projects for Aldeburgh Music. As Artistic Director, he helped establish In Harmony Norwich, creating mixed-ability orchestral pieces for professional and young student players. Until the School of Music closed in June 2014, he was Director of 'Musician in the Community' and 'Creative Leadership' courses at University of East Anglia.



As a composer, Simon has gained an MA in Electroacoustic Composition from City University and collaborated as a composer on a number of large scale works, including a project at Fort Dunlop, Birmingham, with Rosemary Lee and site-specific work with Dutch composer/sound sculptor Harry de Wit in Holland and Brussels.He has produced film scores for TV and film festivals and composed music for theatre productions at the National Theatre and Royal Shakespeare Companies. Groups he has created pieces for include Mary Wiegold's Songbook, Roger Heaton Group, Ensemble Bash, Network of Sparks, Endymion Ensemble, Richard Durrant, Ritmatic, Hooloo. The Brighton Youth Orchestra performed machina lumina , for string ensemble and vibraphone throughout 2009. His composition Machine for Living for Landesmusikrat/Splash was recorded at Deutschlandradio. He has produced recordings for wergo and others.Currently composing a large piece for jazz brass and marimba.

He has created the CDs, Steam, Hooloo, Clean, Ritmatik, Dot-Machine, Hammer, Rise and Fall, , between and Relay, which are frequently broadcast and available on well-known download sites. NEW RELEASE of a double CD RELAY, of contemporary steel-pan music in Sept 2014. Sound Composer for the film 3 Church Walk by the director Emily Richardson premiered on 18th Oct 2014 at The London Festival, BFI, London."

"Hugh Millington is a classical guitarist who works extensively in the areas of performance research, new music performance, and community and outreach work. His research particularly explores the guitar in the nineteenth century, utilising various period instruments. Hugh has given a number of lecture recitals, notably at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in Israel (2018); the Royal Academy of Music Museum (2018); and at the plenary conference for the Society for Musicology in Ireland (2022).

Hugh regularly performs in the Miyabi Duo with guitarist Saki Kato, and together they have collaborated with many composers, including Sylvia Lim and Mihailo Trandafilovski, whose pieces they premiered at the Wigmore Hall in 2021 and 2022. They have recently recorded on albums of music by Edward Cowie and Mihailo Trandafilovski, both of which will be released in 2022. In 2022 they will begin recording the complete guitar music of Timothy Bowers.

The Miyabi Duo also works extensively in community music-making contexts, with participants ranging from babies to elderly people living with dementia. In 2020, the duo was awarded the Wigmore Hall Learning/Open Academy Ensemble Fellowship.

Hugh graduated from the University of Cambridge with the degree of Master of Philosophy in Musicology (2020), where he was awarded the prestigious Waldmann Music Award at Sidney Sussex College. He previously studied with a scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music, where he was awarded the John McAslan Prize, the Timothy Gilson Guitar Prize, and the LRAM diploma."

"Saki Kato is a Japanese classical guitarist who specialises in the areas of new music performance and community music-making. She has given concerts extensively all over the world, in solo, ensemble, and concerto performances. In 2019 she gave her debut solo recital at the Wigmore Hall for the Julian Bream Trust, which included the world premiere of Edward Cowie's Stream and Variations. As a Julian Bream Trust scholar, Saki studied privately with Julian Bream from 2017-20.

As both a soloist and a member of the Miyabi Duo, Saki regularly collaborates with composers, including Sylvia Lim and Mihailo Trandafilovski, whose pieces they premiered at the Wigmore Hall in 2021 and 2022. They have recently recorded albums of music by Edward Cowie and Mihailo Trandafilovski, both of which will be released in 2022 by Métier. In 2022 they will begin recording the complete guitar music of Timothy Bowers.

Saki's extensive community music-making work includes leading musical workshops for participants ranging from babies to elderly people living with dementia. In 2020-21 she was awarded fellowships at both Wigmore Hall Learning and Open Academy (RAM) to develop these skills. She now works regularly with organisations including Britten Pears Arts, Royal Academy of Music, and Wigmore Hall Learning.

Saki graduated from the Royal Academy of Music with first class honours in 2020, having been awarded the prestigious Dove Award, the John McAslan Prize, the Timothy Gilson Guitar Prize, and the LRAM diploma."