News

The Aldeburgh Festival will see the premieres of two pieces for choir and violin, for violinist Daniel Pioro and the Marian Consort – O Ecclesia, O Euchari (after Hildegard), and Hymns of Kassiana (after Kassia). Daniel and the Marians will perform them in the gorgeous Holy Trinity Church in Blythburgh on 10 June – link here. Alongside my two contributions...

My piece Abide is featured on a new recording and publication – Many Voices: Ensemble – from music education charity Music Masters. They commissioned ten composers to work with primary school-age students on a new piece for beginner/intermediate string ensemble. I ran a workshop at Jubilee Primary School near Brixton where I worked with nine- and ten-year olds, gathering material generated by...

Violet has been nominated for an Ivors Classical Award for Best Stage Work. With text by Alice Birch and directed by Jude Christian, it opened the 2022 Aldeburgh Festival and toured the UK, before having further lives in productions in Ulm, Germany and in Paris. It was co-commissioned by Music Theatre Wales and Britten Pears Arts. It was also nominated for...

L'Aurore Boréale's production of Violet, my opera written with writer Alice Birch, is getting three performances at Paris' Festival Bruit next week (23-25 June) at Theâtre de l’Aquarium. The production was first shown at École Normale Supérieure Paris Saclay, directed by Jacques Osinski with Bianca Chillemi conducting Ensemble Maja. The cast is: Juliette Allen (soprano – Violet), Olivier Gourdy (baritone –...

I have been awarded the Critics' Circle Award for Young Composer for 2022. Their citation read: Tom Coult is a storyteller in sound with an ear that makes good on the promise of his titles: I Find Planets, for example, Beautiful Caged Thing and Inventions (for Heath Robinson). All the same, his 2018 String Quartet shows that he doesn’t need an off-the-wall title or idea to...

Violet, my opera with Alice Birch, was given its French premiere last month by the L'Aurore Boréale company with three dates at ENS Paris-Saclay, in a production by Jacques Osinski. They're doing three dates in June at Paris' Theâtre de l'Aquarium, but before that, here are some photos… The cast was soprano Juliette Allen as Violet, baritone Olivier Gourdy as Felix, mezzo...

Violet, my opera with Alice Birch, is being featured in a show of contemporary opera scenes by the National Opera Studio in Leeds and London, directed by Olivia Fuchs. Sarah Seunghwa Chae (as Violet) & Laura Fleur (as Laura) will sing Day 20, one of the final scenes of the opera, with members of Orchestra of Opera North conducted by Garry...

Having given the world premiere of Three Pieces that Disappear, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra are in the studio next week with soprano Anna Dennis to record a programme I've devised, for a live Radio 3 broadcast on 28 April. The pieces are all about mirrors and portraits – Britten's Two Portraits and Beautiful Caged Thing, my take on Oscar Wilde's The Picture...

Violet, my opera written with writer Alice Birch, is receiving its French premiere in Paris on 19 April, in what will be its third production, directed by Jacques Osinski, with the L'Aurore Boréale company. Bianca Chillemi will conduct Ensemble Maja. The cast is: Juliette Allen (soprano – Violet), Olivier Gourdy (baritone – Felix), Natalie Perez (mezzo soprano – Laura), Manuel Nunez...