100 living composers, 50 world premieres - New Music North West in Manchester

The Manchester based, New Music North West is the UK's largest festival of new music so from 22 to 29 January 2016, Manchester will be full of music by 100 living composers. The festival is presented by the Royal Northern College of  Music (RNCM) with events at the RNCM, Martin Harris Centre (University of Manchester), Chetham’s School of Music, St Michael’s (Ancoats) and BBC Philharmonic Studio (MediaCityUK). Composer Sir Harrison Birtwistle will be in residence with 12 of his works being performed; Sir Harrison graduated from the Royal Manchester College of Music, one of the RNCM's predecessors.

The festival's artistic director is Clark Rundell, the head of conducting and director of contemporary music at the RNCM. His programme is a celebration of the liveliness and fecundity of contemporary music in the North West with music by British Composer Award-winner Gary Carpenter, Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize-winners Larry Goves and Daniel Kidane, and Jack Sheen, 2012’s BBC Young Composer of the Year, along with works by Emily Howard, Adam Gorb, Mark Simpson, Leo Geyer and many more. There will be the premiere of Mysterious 44, a new opera by Kevin Malone based on Mark Twain’s The Mysterious Stranger with a score which promises an electronic score, a recorded narration from Richard Dawkins and a singing computer!


Performers include the BBC Philharmonic, Psappha, House of Bedlam, The Vonnegut Collective, Vaganza, Solem Quartet, and RNCM Symphony and Wind Orchestras. There are over 30 free and ticketed events, daytime, evening and late night, with more than 50 world premieres. With plenty of unfamiliar names among the familiar ones, this is a festival to explore and enlarge your horizons.

Full information from the New Music North West website.