One of the most active collaborators with the London Sinfonietta, of which he was nominated Musical director in 1998 and Director laureate in 2002, Oliver Knussen (1952) is also one of the “front line” composers of the British musical scene. Third Symphony  (1973/79) marks his international success, and was followed by opera works with Maurice Sendak, such as Where the Wild Things Are  (1979/83) and Higglety Pigglety Pop! (1984/85). As conductor, Knussen has also worked with the finest orchestras, from the BBC to the Chicago Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra to the Los Angeles Philharmonic and from the Toronto Symphony to the Concertgebouw Orchestra, to mention just a few.

Oliver Knussen’s Coursing will be performed, one of the pieces that brought him public and critical acclaim.

The 30-year-old Luke Bedford studied composition at the Royal College with Edwin Roxburgh and Simon Bainbridge, then, thanks to a scholarship, at the Royal Academy of Music. He was still very young when, in 2001, the London Sinfonietta performed his Five Abstracts, commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic society as winner of the prize named after the institution. The impact was immediate. The piece was recorded by the NMC and subsequently performed in the United States by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Oliver Knussen. His subsequent Rode with Darkness, commissioned by the BBC, gained critical acclaim. Slow Music and Man Shoots Strangers From Skyscraper, both for an ensemble of eight instruments, together with the vocal cycle, Or Voit Tout En Aventure, were all composed in 2006. His latest work, commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra, Outblaze the Sky, had its debut at the Barbican in 2007 under the baton of Daniel Harding.

The London Sinfonietta will be conducted by Diego Masson from France, who has worked with orchestras around the world and is also active in the world of opera. Originally also a percussionist (with Domaine Musical conducted by Pierre Boulez) and composer, Masson has been a lively protagonist of avant-garde music of the 1960s with his Musique Vivante group, to which Stockhausen dedicated his Stop.