John Pickard

John is Professor of Composition at Bristol University, where he has worked for 20 years. He has composed four symphonies, five string quartets, concertos for piano and for trombone and over 40 other works in many genres. The most recent disc of his orchestral music (Sea-Change; Piano Concerto and Tenebrae), issued by BIS records in March this year, has received critical acclaim, with International Record Review (May 2013) describing it as 'outstanding' and BBC Music Magazine (June 2013), in a 5-star review, declaring the release 'an absolute triumph'.

John is currently writing a new orchestral piece commissioned by the Nagoya Philharmonic in Japan for performance in May 2014.
For more info please visit: www.johnpickard.co.uk

Anna Meredith

Anna is a composer and performer of both acoustic and electronic music.
Her music has been performed everywhere from the Last Night of the Proms to flashmob performances in the M6 Services, Latitude Festival to PRADA fashion campaigns, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival to the Ether Festival, and broadcast on Radio 1, 3, 4 & 6

She has been Composer in Residence with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, RPS/PRS Composer in the House with Sinfonia ViVA, the classical music representative for the 2009 South Bank Show Breakthrough Award and winner of the 2010 Paul Hamlyn Award for Composers.

During 2012 she wrote HandsFree as a PRS/RPS 20x12 Commission for the National Youth Orchestra which was performed at the BBC Proms, Barbican Centre and Symphony Hall as well as numerous flashmob performances around the UK.

Her new body-percussion piece Connect It, made with choreographer Dvid Ogle, is a commission for the BBC Ten Pieces Initiative which launches in Autumn 2014 and aims to reach every Primary age child in the UK over the coming year.

Anna's two electronic EPs - Black Prince Fury and Jet Black Raider have been released on Moshi Moshi records to critical acclaim including Drowned in Sound's Single of the Year.

Projects during 2013 included arrangements for The Stranglers & Laura Marling with the London Sinfonietta for the 6Music Prom, performances/commissions at Latitude Festival, Streetwise Opera and a Recorder Concerto for Erik Bosgraaf and the Aurora Orchestra. As well as Connect It, plans for 2014 include commissions for the Scottish Ensemble, Living Earth Duo and a Residency in Hangzhou as one of the British Council/PRSF China Residencies.

Anna is also supporting Anna Calvi on her UK Tour and writing her debut album - due for release next year. For more info please visit: http://annameredith.com

Michael Ellison

Michael’s music defies categorization, integrating contemporary and classical sensibilities with traditional influences into a unique and personal idiom. Described as “beautifully crafted, robust and absorbing” by American Record Guide, Michael’s music is full of colour and contrast, evocative atmosphere and emotional breadth. Having lived and worked in the collision of cultures that is Istanbul for over ten years, his recent work explores the integration of disparate traditions and sonic experimentations into meaningful new forms.
Notable commissions have included the opera Say I Am You-Mevlana (2012), co-produced by Rotterdam Operadagen and IKSV and the Istanbul Music Festival, the ‘Turkish’ Concerto K. 219, for Turkish instruments, cello and orchestra (2008) commissioned and premiered by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Kubla Khan (2011) for the 2011 Istanbul Music Festival with Hezarfen Ensemble Michael currently teaches composition at the University of Bristol.
For more info please visit: www.ellisonotes.wordpress.com

Litha Efthymiou

Litha, who studied composition with Stephen Montague at Trinity College of Music, has been awarded numerous prestigious prizes and awards, including the St Paul's Sinfonia composition competition and, together with long-standing collaborator Effy Efthymiou, the 'Greenwich International String Quartet Composition Competition'.

Her recent concert commissions include 'Bustling' (for recorder quintet), commissioned by Consortium 5 and PRS Women Make Music, premiered at St George's Bloomsbury as part of the Wilding festival in June 2013; 'States of Ice - Diamond Dust' (for guitar), commissioned by the International Guitar Foundation and premiered at Bath Assembly Rooms in July 2012, and 'Egg Soldiers' (for percussion quartet), premiered by acclaimed percussion group Ensemble Bash at Kettle's Yard, Cambridge in May 2012.

She has written music for, produced and directed large-scale multidisciplinary projects, working with artists from the fields of theatre, dance and film. Her composing credits for theatre include: 'The Engineer's Corset' (R and D at The Brewery Theatre, Bristol,  Bread and Circuses, 2013); 'Reminiscence' (Jacksons Lane, Theatre DaCapo, 2008) and 'Wherever I Hang: A Hip Hop Ballet' (Arcola Theatre, London, 2007).
For more info please visit: www.efthymiou.co.uk

Julian Leeks

Julian is a Bristol based composer and the founder and artistic director of NMSW. He has written in various genres, including orchestral and choral music, songs, solo pieces and music for chamber ensemble. His compositional style reflects his broad musical interests which extend from renaissance polyphony up to the contemporary avant-garde.

Elements of world music, minimalism and rock (evidence of his previous musical life as a singer, guitarist and songwriter with various bands) can also be heard in some of his music.

NMSW was born out of Julian’s teaching experience, where he found that even the most musically literate students had very little exposure to or understanding of contemporary music. As a result, the core objective of NMSW is to help young musicians reach their full potential by giving them the chance to experience the best music currently being written and to provide the most promising composers with the practical opportunities that will enable their talents to flourish.
For more info please visit: www.julianleeks.com

Kostis Tsioulakis

After studying in Athens for a degree in History & Archaeology, Kostis started a masters degree in Film Scoring at the University of Bristol. Currently, he is a PhD candidate exploring the application of polyrhythmic textures and Eastern modes on Western instrumental ensembles.

In parallel with his studies, Kostis has written music for over 30 feature & short films, documentaries, computer games and websites, while also collaborating with Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in London. Kostis's latest work includes the full score for the feature film "How Not To Disappear Completely" (2013, UK) and the main music for the TV Documentary "Neubeginn Auf Griechisch: Die Krise Als Chance" (2013, Germany-France).
For more info please visit: www.kostistsioulakis.com

Geoff Poole

Geoff is a freelance composer living in the Cotswolds. A former Professor of Composition at Bristol University his love of the classical mainstream is enriched by interest in medieval music, jazz, experimental and mathematical influences, as well as folk traditions from Europe, Africa and Asia.

He has lived and worked in Nairobi (1985-7), in the USA as Visiting Fellow in Composition at Princeton (1997-8), and has collaborated with traditional musicians in South Korea (2008). His compositions include Two-Way Talking for Ghanaian Drummer and 5 ensembles, Swans Reflecting Elephants for Javanese Gamelan and orchestra, and Lucifer for piano and brass.
For more info please visit: www.geoffpoole.co.uk

Manos Charalabopoulos

Manos is a Greek-British composer and pianist. He has been commissioned by ensembles, such as the Hezarfen Ensemble (KlangZeit-Festival, Germany) and the Bridge Quartet (American College of Greece), and contemporary music organizations such as New Music in the South West and Contemporary Music Venture. He was a shortlisted composer for the Britten Sinfonia’s OPUS2015 competition and is currently composing a work for soprano and ensemble to be premiered at Festival Musica (Strasbourg) in September 2015. As a performer he has appeared in venues across the UK, Greece and France.

He has studied at the Universities of Oxford (BA in Music) and Bristol (MA in Music – Composition). Having completed a year of piano studies with Eugen Indjic at La Schola Cantorum in Paris, he is currently undertaking doctoral studies in composition at King's College London under the supervision of George Benjamin and Silvina Milstein as a scholar of the London Arts and Humanities Partnership (LAHP).

Sara Garrard

Sara studied music at the University of Bristol and is excited to be returning to study composition as a postgraduate.  She has also scored several film and television projects, and works with Bristol theatre companies, most recently providing a live keyboard score to Degrees of Error's improvised murder mystery at the Edinburgh Fringe.
For more info please visit: www.sara-garrard.com

Jolyon Laycock

Composer, pianist, poet, teacher, lecturer, music animateur, researcher. Jolyon has pursued a freelance career as an experimental sound artist based at the Birmingham Arts Laboratory, and Spectro Arts Workshop in Newcastle on Tyne, presenting work in galleries and arts centres in the UK and Europe. For 10 years he was Music and Dance Co-ordinator at the Arnolfini in Bristol, running a programme of contemporary music and dance regarded as one of the most innovative outside London.

In 1990 he took up the post of Concert Director at the University of Bath and at the newly opened Michael Tippett Centre at Bath Spa University College and founded the award-winning concert series “Rainbow over Bath”. In 1996, he initiated the programme “Rainbow across Europe”, funded by the European Kaleidoscope Fund. This collaborative network of concert promoters and educational institutions in several European cities in France, Netherlands, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Austria was described by Gillian Perkins as a ground breaking initiative which took British techniques of “creative music making into European classrooms in several countries at once”. From 2004-2010 he was Senior Lecturer in Arts Management and Musicology at Oxford Brookes University.

Recordings of Jolyon's instrumental and choral music are available from the Rainbow Foundation. He is currently chairman of SCA an organisation promoting the music of composers from the South West of England.

Arthur Keegan-Bole

Having completed a Masters Degree in composition with distinction Arthur is now studying toward a PhD with Neal Farwell. His main area of interest is in combining acoustic instruments with discrete electronic resources. His first opera The Interrogation of Adam Pollo was premiered at ‘Tête à Tête: the Opera Festival’ in 2012 and plans for his second are under way.   Arthur has been the recipient of several awards including the Hinrichsen Foundation, Duignan Fund, Harriet’s Trust and the Bristol Alumni Foundation. Prizes include the Raymond Warren Prize (2011) and the Bristol Centenary Prize (2010).

In addition to his compositional activities Arthur runs Arpa Productions – a not-for-profit production company that develops professional opportunities for early-stage composers and performers.
For more information see www.arthurkeeganbole.weebly.com

Daniel Linker

After completing a BA in Music Theory at Universidad de Chile, Daniel composed a number of film scores as well as pursuing his own independent compositional projects. He subsequently moved to Bristol to study for an MA in Film Scoring followed by an MA in Composition. He is currently working towards a PhD in Composition under the supervision of Michael Ellison.

In 2012 Daniel won the Bristol New Music Ensemble competition, with his piece ‘The Feathered Snake’ and in 2013 his ‘Espiritu del Agua’ (Spirit of the Water) won the prize Musicapoi-Spaziomusica in Italy, where it was premiered in October 2013.

Andy Keenan

Having studied clarinet and composition at the Royal Academy of Music, Bristol-born composer, orchestrator and producer Andy Keenan is active in a wide variety of musical genres and in a number of different roles.

He has been score editor and arranger on numerous projects for major publishing houses, including Boosey and Chester, and has worked with composers such as Mark Anthony Turnage, Steve Martland and Jocelyn Pook. As score editor and orchestrator for Michael Nyman, he has worked on films such as The Actors, Nathalie X and The Libertine as well as a number of Nyman’s Operas and concert works.

Andy has worked at The Royal Shakespeare Company, The Shakespeare Globe Theatre and the National Theatre in London and has orchestrated projects for the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia and London Symphony.

In his role as a producer he has worked with contemporary musicians in the fields of classical, jazz and electronic music.

As a composer he has written a number of works for small ensembles, three for Wind Orchestra and two pieces for large symphony orchestra, including a commission for the first piece in the inaugural concert of the Docklands Sinfonia in London. He is currently writing a concerto for Bass Clarinet and Strings as well as a piece for the CityWater Music Ensemble in Sacramento, California and one for the Providence String Quartet in Rhode Island. He will be producing albums for both of these groups later in the year.

Jean Hasse

Jean  composes for silent films, sound films, science festivals and special events (music soundscapes), along with concert music pieces. She conducts ensembles and does music score preparation and orchestration work. Jean is the Course Tutor for the MA Composition for Film and Television course at the University of Bristol. Her music is published by Visible Music.