A Prayer for St Matthew premieres on 17 October with the Ulster Consort at St Moluas Church of Ireland, with Tristan Russcher (organ), and conducted by Matthew Owens. This the third concert in an annual series featuring the group's commissioning project: The Cranmer Anthem Book. The project sees new settings of each of the 88 Collects (or prayers) from the Book of Common Prayer, devised by Tudor Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer (1489–1556). The pieces, composed by som

George Lewis features at Melbourne Jazz Festival on Saturday 17 October with three of his compositions, including the world premieres of two new works commissioned by the Monash Art Ensemble: 'Le Negrier' and 'Is Our Machines Learning Yet?'. Bringing together staff and students from the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music and Performance alongside musicians from ELISION, this ambitious collaboration celebrates the spirit of experimentation, creative risk-taking and musical innov

Anna Berg has been nominated for a TONO Newcomer Award! TONO's Newcomer Award is presented to composers or music publishers who are early in their careers and have had a breakthrough in the previous year. Artistic quality, impact and visibility are key considerations for the judging panel. Berg is nominated for her orchestral piece, Nuances of Water, which premiered with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra in November 2025 and has since seen further performances and France and

On 5 September, James Dillon’s Lamentations : premieres at Musikfestival Bern where Dillon is the festival’s 2026 featured composer. Commissioned by Musikfestival Bern and Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (hcmf//) the work is scored for 8 voices, 10 players and electronics, and will be performed by Ensemble Proton and Schola Heidelberg, conducted by Ekkehard Windrich, for both the world premiere and UK premiere (taking place on 20 November). Musikfestival Bern will fe

Sally Beamish is BBC Radio 3’s Composer of the Week for the week of 24-28 August. Celebrating her 70th birthday, over 5 programmes Donald Macleod discusses her musical upbringing, her compositional path, and her recent new beginnings on the south coast. Episodes will be broadcast each day at 4pm and available on BBC Sounds. Listen here: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00309fv/episodes/player Image © Elizabeth Ajao

To mark her seventieth birthday, Sally Beamish returns to the instrument that has shaped her musical life: the viola. House of Wonder explores recent works written by Beamish for herself to play, alongside new pieces she has commissioned especially for this recording from her three children – themselves all accomplished musicians – and other close collaborators. Autobiography runs through the programme. Childhood memories surface in Crescent; poetry and jazz inflections shape

The premiere of Ryan Latimer's concerto for trumpet, Bestia, is now available to listen to on BBC Sounds. The new work received its world premiere 24 April with soloist Selina Ott and the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Fabien Gabel. The piece is inspired by Fearsome Creatures of Florida, by author John Henry Fleming. The book takes the form of a medieval bestiary, a curious catalogue of fantastical beasts that can be found lurking beneath America’s modern-day suburbia. B

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra has announced the world premiere of Matthew Kaner's Violin Concerto as part of their 2026/27 season. "Composing is a never-ending voyage of discovery,” says Kaner, “The key is to keep challenging yourself.” His new Violin Concerto is written for the magnificent sound and adventurous spirit of soloist Benjamin Baker and will be conducted by Ryan Wigglesworth. The concerto will be framed by Brahms' Second Symphony and Schumann's Overture, Scher

George Lewis' " …ohne festen Wohnsitz” ('Of no fixed abode') premieres with Yarn/Wire and the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Kwamé Ryan, on 8, 9, 10 April. Yarn/Wire is a New York City–based percussion and piano quartet (percussionists Russell Greenberg and Dustin Donahue, pianists Laura Barger and Julia Den Boer) that creates visceral, adventurous new music at the intersection of concert tradition and sonic experimentation. Since forming in 2005, the ensemble has becom

Sean Shibe’s album Vesper presents a collection of contemporary guitar works, including James Dillon's 12 Caprices , which Shibe premiered last year at Wigmore Hall. Recorded here for the first time, the album's miniatures explore the guitar’s expressive range in profoundly different ways: ritualistic and evocative in works by Harrison Birtwistle, elemental in Dillon, and allusive in Adès. Shibe’s interpretations reveal the instrument’s extraordinary colour, subtlety, and ca