Peter Reynolds Composers Studio 2023

The support and nurture of emerging talent has always been at the forefront of the Festival’s objectives. Directed by contemporary South African composer Robert Fokkens, The Peter Reynolds Composers Studio returns for 2023 to provide vital experiences for developing musicians.

ROBERT FOKKENS
PRCS Course Director

Robert Fokkens’ music is performed and broadcast internationally, published by Composers Edition and Tetractys Publishing, and recorded on Nimbus, Métier, Herald, Naxos and other labels. Robert’s music works across boundaries of style, using techniques and materials learned from many musical worlds, creating music of twisted cycles and microtonal inflections described as ‘hilarious’, ‘sad [and] strange…express[ing] more than anything else’ (Times). Recently, his opera Bhekizizwe was premiered on the BBC Wales ‘Gŵyl 2021’ online festival and toured in Wales (2022), his violin/cello duo Pier Music was premiered at the Penarth Chamber Music Festival by David Adams and Alice Neary, followed by further performances, and the European premiere of Mzantsi Nights was performed and broadcast in Germany by Ensemble Modern (2023). Robert is Reader in Composition and directs the Contemporary Music Group at Cardiff University, and is an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music.

ZOE SONES

Zoe Sones is a UK-based composer who focuses on acoustic contemporary classical and ambient electronic composition. In her works, she explores an array of textures and timbres of both instruments and nature’s very own sounds. She enjoys creating haunting electronic drones, writing harmonically rich and serene chords, while also being a bedroom DJ.

CHARLOTTE GLYN-WOODS

Charlotte Glyn-Woods (b.2000) is a composer currently living and working in London. She is currently pursuing a Master of Composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, studying with Matthew King. Her work spans multiple styles and has been presented by CHROMA ensemble, EXAUDI vocal ensemble, The Bauhaus Band, as well as specially formed peer groups. Her work focuses on dramatic narrative that explore the highs and lows of the human condition. These interests lend themselves to cross-disciplinary projects in dance and music theatre..

SAM BUTTLER

Sam Buttler (b. 1996) is a Welsh composer. He is currently Associate Composer with The Ripieno Players, and they premiered his concerto for guitar and strings, Water Portraits, in 2019. In 2019, he worked closely with the flautist Lily Caunt on a ceiling full of stars, a piece inspired by and recorded in The Monteath Mausoleum in the Scottish Borders. This work incorporates sound from the surroundings as well as within the mausoleum, and has since been published by Tetractys Publishing. A version for recorder was premiered by James Risdon as part of the RNS Moves Concert Series in 2020. He was selected as one of the six composers for Tŷ Cerdd’s 2020 CoDI Mentors Scheme, where he worked closely with the composer Freya Waley-Cohen. His music has been regularly used by the Amgueddfa Cymru-National Museum Wales in a variety of promotional material. During the lockdowns in 2020 and 2021, he also remotely recorded After This Manner for five voices and Extend the Dawn for solo oboe and electronics. He was also recently shortlisted for Composition: Wales 2022 with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales with the piece Stones have memory here…, premiered in May 2022. He was chosen as one of the six composers for Tŷ Cerdd’s CoDI Lead scheme, working closely on a quartet of musicians from Paraorchestra on a new work, Chariots, Death, Jewels, and the Moon, premiered in March 2022.

In 2018, he was selected as one of eight composers commissioned for Royal Holloway’s Distant Voices, Current Drifts project with the Royal Holloway New Music Collective. Also in 2018, he recorded a trio of choral works in St Peter’s College Chapel, Oxford with Joe Davies (conductor) and singers from the University of Oxford. Also in 2018, he was chosen to participate in the 2018 Etchings Festival with the ECCE Ensemble. In 2019, he was selected as one of the Emerging Composers at the Ludlow English Song Weekend.

He graduated in 2017 with a BA in Music from St Peter’s College, Oxford. He then received a Distinction in his MMus in Composition at Royal Holloway, University of London with Aaron Holloway-Nahum, John Traill, and Chris Whiter in 2018. In 2020, he started a PhD in Composition at King’s College, London, supervised by Edward Nesbit and George Benjamin.

ALIYAH RAMATALLY

I am an emerging composer and have completed my music undergraduate studies (BA) at Durham University, with specialisation in music composition and music psychology. Though my passion lies in creating music, I am currently pursuing my Masters (MA) at Durham University with specialisation in Music and Science. My creative interests verge beyond my academic and musical accolades with a strong passion for art, photography, public speaking, writing, and event planning.

EFE YüKSEL

Efe Yüksel is a composer, electronic musician, and performer from Turkey/İzmir. He is currently on his final year of undergraduate in Guildhall School of Music, studying composition with Malcolm Singer and electronic music with Nye Parry. His works have been workshopped and performed by the likes of pianist Ben Smith, violinist Mira Benjamin, flutist Cem Önertürk, conductor Jack Sheen, the Ligeti Quartet, Line upon Line Percussion Trio, Guildhall Sessions Orchestra and Lakeside Brass Quintet in venues such as the Courtauld Gallery, Milton Court Concert Hall, St. Marylebone Parish Church (as part of St. Marylebone Festival) and the Barbican Centre. He has also participated in various projects, writing music for the Illuminated River Project, Song in the City, Barbican Silent Film Showings, and the Barbican Beethoven Weekender. He has had masterclasses with composers Julian Anderson, Mark Andre, Eivind Buene, Mahir Cetiz, Alasdair Nicolson, Michael Ellison, and Pieter Snapper. Upcoming projects include works for EXAUDI Vocal Ensemble and clarinettist Heather Roche. He is supported by the Guildhall School Trust and Talent Unlimited.

His instrumental work so far has mainly been concerned with exploring and pushing the limits and capabilities of instruments and voices via hands on experimentation and close collaboration with performers. This interest is also relevant to his research, writing a dissertation on Rebecca Saunders’ work, the structural organisation of noise and gesture and recently having given a seminar on inharmonic vocal multiphonics.

Alongside writing instrumental music, one of his biggest interests is programming algorithmic music/live electronic music and combining live electronic processing with instruments, mainly using the software MaxMsp, which has been the focus of a lot of his recent work. Aside from composing he is also active as a pianist, live electronics/live coding and melodica performer. The melodica holds a special place in his heart, and he has been trying to develop a repertoire for this unjustly neglected instrument by writing, commissioning, arranging, and performing new work.

GEORGIA DENHAM

Georgia Denham draws on a love of visual arts and anecdotal experience to create her music. She often begins with drawing and watercolours to articulate shapes and structures, before these ideas become notation or sound. She previously studied composition at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire with Andrew Hamilton, Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag with Calliope Tsoupaki, and now at the University of Cambridge with Richard Causton. As an undergraduate, Georgia was awarded the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Prize and was later nominated for an Ivor Composer Award 2020 for music written during her degree.

Writing words as well as music, Georgia has written for the British Music Collection and The New Music Cafe about her unconventional journeys as a composer. An upcoming essay series on women, mothering and making, will be published by Sound and Music to accompany her debut EP for harp, electronics and voice. She has written music for Music We’d Like to Hear, Fidelio Trio, Decibel, New European Ensemble, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and Orkest de Ereprijs. Georgia lives in Cambridge with her husband, a theoretical computer-scientist, and their many beloved plants.