Kenneth Hesketh

Kenneth Hesketh (b. 1968) began composing whilst a chorister at Liverpool Cathedral, later studying at the Royal College of Music. He attended Tanglewood in 1995 where he studied with Henri Dutilleux and was subsequently awarded a scholarship from the Toepfer Foundation at the behest of Sir Simon Rattle. He is now a professor at the Royal College of Music and honorary professor at Liverpool University. He was New Music Fellow at Kettle's Yard, Cambridge from 2003-2005.

He has received many commissions from major performing organisations in Europe, Canada and the US. Susanna Malkki chose his work for her opening concert as Music Director of Ensemble intercontemporain and his music has been featured in concerts by Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, the SWR Orchester Baden-Baden, Psappha, the ASKO ensemble and BBC NOW. Hesketh’s transcription of Aphex Twin’s Polygon Window was part of the hugely successful London Sinfonietta and WARP records collaboration which toured Europe and was released on CD. In 2007 Hesketh was made Composer in the House (Royal Philharmonic Society/ PRS Foundation scheme) with the RLPO.

A new commission from The Royal Philharmonic Society Drummond Fund has resulted in new work for dance; Kenneth Hesketh will write a new piece for ensemble Psappha and Phoenix Dance Theatre, that will be toured nationally in 2013. The work, Forms entangled, shapes collided, takes as its inspiration Greek philosophy and the theory of atomism – the idea that the world consists of two fundamental principals: atoms and void.

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.