Kenneth Hesketh - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Kenneth Hesketh is a British composer of contemporary classical music in numerous genres including opera, orchestral, chamber, vocal and solo. He also composes music for wind and brass bands as well as seasonal music for choir.

Biography

Hesketh began composing whilst a chorister at Liverpool Anglican Cathedral and completed his first work for orchestra at the age of thirteen. He received his first formal commission at nineteen for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society is a society based in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, that organises concerts and other events mainly in the field of classical music. The society is the second oldest of its type in the United Kingdom and its orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic...

under Sir Charles Groves

Charles Groves

Sir Charles Barnard Groves CBE was an English conductor. He was known for the breadth of his repertoire and for encouraging contemporary composers and young conductors....

. He studied at the Royal College of Music

Royal College of Music

The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire founded by Royal Charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, England.-Background:The first director was Sir George Grove and he was followed by Sir Hubert Parry...

, London, with Edwin Roxburgh

Edwin Roxburgh

Edwin Roxburgh is an English composer, conductor and oboist.After playing oboe in the National Youth Orchestra, he won a double scholarship to study composition with Herbert Howells and oboe with Terence MacDonagh at the Royal College of Music. He also studied composition with Nadia Boulanger in...

, Joseph Horovitz

Joseph Horovitz

Joseph Horovitz is a British composer and conductor. Horovitz's family emigrated to England in 1938. He studied music and modern languages at New College, Oxford, and later attended the Royal College of Music in London, studying composition with Gordon Jacob. He then undertook a year of further...

and Simon Bainbridge

Simon Bainbridge

Simon Bainbridge is a British composer, and a professor and former head of composition at the Royal Academy of Music, London, and visiting professor at the University of Louisville, Kentucky in the United States.-Biography:...

between 1987 and 1992 and attended Tanglewood

Tanglewood

Tanglewood is an estate and music venue in Lenox and Stockbridge, Massachusetts. It is the home of the annual summer Tanglewood Music Festival and the Tanglewood Jazz Festival, and has been the Boston Symphony Orchestra's summer home since 1937. It was the venue of the Berkshire Festival.- History...

in 1995 as the Leonard Bernstein Fellow where he studied with Henri Dutilleux

Henri Dutilleux

Henri Dutilleux is one of the most important French composers of the second half of the 20th century, producing work in the tradition of Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, and Albert Roussel, but in a style distinctly his own...

. After completing a Masters degree in Composition at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA, a series of awards followed: the Shakespeare Prize

Shakespeare Prize

The Shakespeare Prize was an annual prize for writing or performance awarded to a British citizen by the Hamburg Alfred Toepfer Foundation. First given by Alfred Toepfer in 1937 as an expression of his Anglophilia in the face of tense international conditions, the prize was awarded only twice...

scholarship from the Toepfer Foundation, Hamburg at the behest of Sir Simon Rattle

Simon Rattle

Sir Simon Denis Rattle, CBE is an English conductor. He rose to international prominence as conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and since 2002 has been principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic ....

, an award from the Liverpool Foundation for Sport and the Arts, and on his return to London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

in 1999 Hesketh was awarded the Constant and Kit Lambert Fellowship at the Royal College of Music

Royal College of Music

, with support from the Worshipful Company of Musicians

Worshipful Company of Musicians

The Worshipful Company of Musicians is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. Its history dates back to at least 1350. Originally a specialist guild for musicians, its role became an anachronism in the 18th century, when the centre of music making in London moved from the City to the...

.

From 2003 to 2005 he was New Music Fellow at Kettle's Yard

Kettle's Yard

Kettle's Yard is an art gallery and house in Cambridge, England.- History and overview :Kettle's Yard was originally the Cambridge home of Jim Ede and his wife Helen. Moving to Cambridge in 1956, they converted four small cottages into one idiosyncratic house and a place to display Ede's collection...

and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge

Corpus Christi College, Cambridge

Corpus Christi College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. It is notable as the only college founded by Cambridge townspeople: it was established in 1352 by the Guilds of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary...

where he curated a series of new music chamber concerts. The Fondation André Chevillion-Yvonne Bonnaud prize was awarded to Hesketh at the 2004 Concours International de Piano d'Orléans after a performance of his Three Japanese Miniatures by pianist Daniel Becker.

In 2007, Hesketh took up the position of Composer in the House with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

for two years. The scheme, devised by the Royal Philharmonic Society

Royal Philharmonic Society

The Royal Philharmonic Society is a British music society, formed in 1813. It was originally formed in London to promote performances of instrumental music there. Many distinguished composers and performers have taken part in its concerts...

in partnership with the PRS

PRS

- Computers and telecommunication :* Procedural Reasoning System, an architecture for developing intelligent agents* Premium Rate Service, internationally available telephone-based premium services....

Foundation, was designed to allow composers the time and space to create new work, and to take their place at the heart of the orchestral community. Hesketh's tenure with the RLPO saw the creation of works for many of the instrumental groups within the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society, from the orchestra and contemporary music ensemble (Ensemble 10/10, with whom Hesketh already has a thriving relationship) to youth ensembles, chamber groups and choirs. He also took part in teaching and outreach projects in Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

and Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

during the two years.

Musical style

An early enthusiasm for Franco-Russian music of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was one of the stimuli behind Hesketh's interest in colourful orchestration, and he has always been inspired by the other arts. Several works have their origins in medieval symbolism and iconography, notably three pieces for chamber ensemble: Theatrum (1996), Torturous Instruments (1997-8, after Hieronymous Bosch's depiction of Hell from The Garden of Earthly Delights), and The Circling Canopy of Night (1999). This was Hesketh's first piece to gain international attention. Commissioned by the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group is a chamber orchestra based in Birmingham, England. BCMG specialises in the performance of new and contemporary music. BCMG performs regularly at the CBSO Centre and Symphony Hall in Birmingham...

and Faber Music

Faber Music

Faber Music is a British sheet music publisher best known for contemporary classical music. It also publishes music tutor books, and in 2005 acquired popular music publisher International Music Publications....

it was first conducted by Sir Simon Rattle

Simon Rattle

and further championed by Oliver Knussen

Oliver Knussen

Oliver Knussen CBE is a British composer and conductor.-Biography:Oliver Knussen was born in Glasgow, Scotland. His father, Stuart Knussen, was principal double bass of the London Symphony Orchestra. Oliver Knussen studied composition with John Lambert, between 1963 and 1969 and also received...

, who has performed many of Hesketh's works. Performances at the Promenade Concerts at the Royal Albert Hall

Royal Albert Hall

The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....

, London

London

(London Sinfonietta

London Sinfonietta

The London Sinfonietta is an English chamber orchestra founded in 1968 and based in London. The ensemble specialises in contemporary music and works across a wide range of genres, performing modern classics alongside world premieres, and includes music by electronica artists as well as folk and...

) and the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

(ASKO Ensemble) soon followed. The Times

The Times

The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

described this work as "a glistening whirl of nocturnal colours, [with] a driving sense of purpose and onward movement."

He is also intrigued by children's literature with a sinister or melancholy streak. His 2000-1 work, Netsuke (from the Japanese miniature sculptures called netsuke
Netsuke
Netsuke are miniature sculptures that were invented in 17th-century Japan to serve a practical function...

) — commissioned by the ensemble Endymion at the request of Hans Werner Henze

Hans Werner Henze

Hans Werner Henze is a German composer of prodigious output best known for "his consistent cultivation of music for the theatre throughout his life"...

— comprises five short movements inspired variously by Saint-Exupéry's

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry , officially Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, comte de Saint Exupéry , was a French writer, poet and pioneering aviator. He became a laureate of France's highest literary awards, and in 1939 was the winner of the U.S. National Book Award...

Le Petit Prince, Hoffmann's

Heinrich Hoffmann

Heinrich Hoffmann was a German photographer best known for his many published photographs of Adolf Hitler.-Early life and career:...

Struwwelpeter
Struwwelpeter
Der Struwwelpeter is a popular German children's book by Heinrich Hoffmann. It comprises ten illustrated and rhymed stories, mostly about children. Each has a clear moral that demonstrates the disastrous consequences of misbehavior in an exaggerated way. The title of the first story provides the...

, and a poem by Walter de la Mare

Walter de la Mare

Walter John de la Mare , OM CH was an English poet, short story writer and novelist, probably best remembered for his works for children and the poem "The Listeners"....

. Other such works include Small Tales, tall tales after the Brothers Grimm

Brothers Grimm

The Brothers Grimm , Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm , were German academics, linguists, cultural researchers, and authors who collected folklore and published several collections of it as Grimm's Fairy Tales, which became very popular...

, and Detail from the Record after Japanese folk tales.

Hesketh has described Netsuke as 'intricate and ornate', a description which could apply to most of his works. He favours complex textures, though the transparency of his instrumental writing ensures that every note is clearly heard, and the rhythmic flexibility typical of his style gives his music an improvisatory character. His orchestral work At God speeded summer's end (2000, premiered by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra) has a clarity of texture and orchestral virtuosity. Recent pieces show an interest in what the composer describes as ‘unreliable machines’: short bursts of mechanistic material that repeat, are transformed but ultimately burn themselves out.

Notable commissions, compositions and performances

Hesketh has received numerous commissions from international ensembles and organisations including the Fromm Foundation at Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

, the Continuum Ensemble, a Faber Millennium Commission for the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group

, the BBC Philharmonic

BBC Philharmonic

The BBC Philharmonic is a British broadcasting symphony orchestra based at Media City UK, Salford, England. It is one of five radio orchestras maintained by the British Broadcasting Corporation. The orchestra's primary concert venue is the Bridgewater Hall....

, Hans Werner Henze

Hans Werner Henze

Hans Werner Henze is a German composer of prodigious output best known for "his consistent cultivation of music for the theatre throughout his life"...

and Endymion (in honour of Henze's 75th birthday), the Munich Biennale

Munich Biennale

The Munich Biennale is an opera festival in the city of Munich. The full German name is Internationales Festival für neues Musiktheater, literally: International Festival for New Music Theater. The biennial festival was created in 1988 by Hans Werner Henze and is held in even-numbered years over...

, the Michael Vyner Trust for the London Sinfonietta

London Sinfonietta

, an ENO/Almeida joint commission, the 10/10 Ensemble and the Opera Group at the Linbury Theatre, Covent Garden

Covent Garden

Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...

.

His many concert works, including opera, orchestral, chamber, vocal and solo works are published by Schott & Co.

Schott Music

Schott Music is one of the oldest German music publishers. It is also one of the largest music publishing houses in Europe and is currently the second oldest music publishing house. The company headquarters of Schott Music was founded by Bernhard Schott in Mainz, Germany in 1770.Established in...

, London

London

and are performed by leading ensembles and orchestras in Europe and North America. A selection of major works include Two Lapels and a Pocket (from the Overcoat after Gogol) for orchestra, Theatrum for large ensemble, Dei Destini Incrociati for chamber ensemble, Poetic Conceits for piano solo, Detail from the Record for chamber orchestra, Music of a distant drum for Baritone and ensemble, Small Tales, tall tales four four singers and ensemble and At God speeded summer's end for orchestra.

Hesketh’s other works for symphonic wind band have become contemporary classics of the genre. Tuneful and immediately accessible, regular performances of them around the world have led to British, Japanese, American and Canadian commercial recordings. These are published by Faber Music

Faber Music

. His seasonal compositions for choir and orchestra are published by Novello & Co.

Recent performances have been given by the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra (Hessicher Rundfunk), the Sudwest Rundfunk (Baden-Baden), the London Sinfonietta

London Sinfonietta

, Psappha

Psappha New Music Ensemble

Psappha New Music Ensemble is an ensemble of contemporary classical musicians based in the North West of England, specialised in the performance of works by living composers. Founded in 1991, Psappha takes its name from the composition of the same name by Greek modernist composer Iannis Xenakis...

, the ASKO ensemble, the Continuum Ensemble (Spitalfields

Spitalfields

Spitalfields is a former parish in the borough of Tower Hamlets, in the East End of London, near to Liverpool Street station and Brick Lane. The area straddles Commercial Street and is home to many markets, including the historic Old Spitalfields Market, founded in the 17th century, Sunday...

festival). Conductors include Sir Simon Rattle

Simon Rattle

, Oliver Knussen

Oliver Knussen

, Martyn Brabbins, Patrick Bailey, Philip Headlam, Christoph Mueller, Vassily Sinaisky

Vassily Sinaisky

Vassily Serafimovich Sinaisky is a Russian conductor and pianist. He studied conducting with Ilya Musin at the Leningrad Conservatory and began his career as Assistant to Kirill Kondrashin at the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra...

and Vasily Petrenko

Vasily Petrenko

Vasily Petrenko is a Russian conductor. He attended the Capella Boys Music School and the St Petersburg Conservatoire. He studied conducting with Ilya Musin, and later under the tutelage of Mariss Jansons, Yuri Temirkanov and Esa-Pekka Salonen. He was resident conductor at the St. Petersburg...

. Soloists include violinst Simon Blendis, Clio Gould and Peter Sheppard-Skaerved, oboists Nicholas Daniel

Nicholas Daniel

Nicholas Daniel is a British oboist and conductor. He won the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition at eighteen and has since become one of the United Kingdom's most distinguished soloists...

, Christopher Redgate and Hansjorg Schellenberger, sopranos Sarah Leonard, Claire Booth and Marie Vassilliou, baritone Rodney Clarke and pianists Karl Lutchmayer, Sarah Nichols and Daniel Becker.

Future performances include Diatoms I-IV (the four horsemen) for the Francoise-Green piano duo and the first installment of four piano miniatures from a projected series of twelve titled Horae (pro Clara) for the British pianist Clare Hammond. In 2011 Notte Oscura for piano solo (Peter O'Hagan) was released on the UHR label, Point Forms (after Kandinsky) for Basset clarinet was released on the NMC label (Mark Simpson and Ian Buckle), and Three Japanese Miniatures was released on the Prima Facie label (Clare Hammond). A disk of his chamber music performed by the contemporary music group Psappha will released later the same year.

Kenneth Hesketh has recently been made an honorary professor of composition at University of Liverpool

University of Liverpool

The University of Liverpool is a teaching and research university in the city of Liverpool, England. It is a member of the Russell Group of large research-intensive universities and the N8 Group for research collaboration. Founded in 1881 , it is also one of the six original "red brick" civic...

and is professor of composition and orchestration at the Royal College of Music

Royal College of Music

. He lives in London

London

and is married to the composer Arlene Sierra

Arlene Sierra

Arlene Sierra is an American composer working in the United Kingdom.She studied at Oberlin College, Yale University and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, receiving a DMA in 1999; among her principal teachers were Martin Bresnick, Michael Daugherty and Jacob Druckman...

Chronology of important dates

1968 Born in Liverpool

1977 Chorister at Liverpool Anglican Cathedral

1985 Symphony

1987 First formal commission from Sir Charles Groves for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

1992 Now Springs the Spray for soprano and orchestra

1994 Recit. And Aria for Soprano and chamber ensemble

1995 Leonard Bernstein Fellow at Tanglewood

1996 Fromm Foundation commission (Harvard University, USA)

1996 Theatrum for chamber ensemble (Tanglewood/ Fromm Foundation Commission)

1996 Shakespeare Prize scholarship from the Toepfer Foundation, Hamburg

1997 Masters degree in Composition, University of Michigan, USA

1997 Torturous Instruments for chamber ensemble

1998 Die hangende Figur ist Judas for solo cello

1999 The Circling Canopy of Night for chamber ensemble (Faber/ BCMG joint commission)

1999 Award from the Liverpool Foundation for Sport and the Arts

1999 Awarded Constant and Kit Lambert Fellow at the Royal College of Music, London

2000 At God Speeded Summer’s End for orchestra (BBC Philharmonic Orchestra commission)

2000-1 Netsuke for chamber ensemble (commissioned by Hans Werner Henze for his 75th birthday)

2001 After Verdi for chamber orchestra

2001 Detail from the Record for chamber orchestra (Michael Vyner Trust commission for London Sinfonietta)

2002 Notte Oscura for orchestra

2002 Cautionary Tales for clarinet, violin and piano

2002 Dei Destini Incrociati for six players (Munich Biennale commission)

2002 Fra Duri Scogli for six players

2002 Three Japanese Miniatures for solo piano

2002-3 The Overcoat opera in 2 Acts (ENO/ Almeida Opera joint commission)

2003 A Land So Luminous for violin and chamber ensemble

2003 Appointed Professor of Composition and Orchestra, Royal College of Music, London

2003-5 New Music Fellow, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge

2004 Polygon Window for violin, 2 pianos and 11 percussion

2004 Two Lapels and Pocket (Suite No. 1 from the Overcoat)

2004 Three Japanese Miniatures awarded Fondation Andre Chevillion-Yvonne Bonnaud Prize

2005 Threats and Declamations for chamber ensemble

2005 Three Pieces in the Shape of a Shoe for oboe, bassoon and piano

2005-6 The Doctrine of Affections for chamber ensemble (Britten Sinfonia commission)

2006 Music of a Distant Drum for baritone and chamber ensemble (Spitalfields Festival commission)

2006 Small Tales, tall tales for soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, baritone and chamber ensemble (Opera Group commission)

2006 Poetic Conceits for solo piano

2006 Ein Lichtspiel (after Moholy-Nagy) for ensemble (10/10 Anniversary commission)

2007 Appointed Composer in the House with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

2007 A Rhyme for the Season for orchestra

2007 Like the Sea, like time for Tenor soloist, SATB chorus, Youth chorus and Orchestra

2007 Theatre of Attractions - for chamber ensemble with film

2008 Graven Image for orchestra

2008 The Gilded Theatre for symphonic wind band

2008 Wunderkammer(konzert) for ensemble

2008 Made Honorary Professor of Composition at University of Liverpool

2008 PatterSongs for orchestra

2009 Point Forms (after Kandinsky) for Bassett Clarinet and Piano

2009 La morta meditata (Death meditated upon) Four settings of Giuseppe Ungaretti for Baritone and Piano

2010 KLOK for solo percussion

2010 Danceries (set II)

2011 Diatoms I-IV (The Four Horsemen) for two pianos

2011 Sisyphus' Punishment for String Quartet

2011 Horae (pro Clara) I-VIII for solo piano

2011 Knotted Tongues for orchestra

External links

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