The BBC Philharmonic has announced Tom Coult as its new composer in association, a role that will commence in autumn 2021 with the premiere of his first commission with the orchestra, a piece titled Pleasure Garden. This will be followed by two further commissions for the BBC Philharmonic.
Tom Coult has worked with the BBC Philharmonic before, with the orchestra having given the premiere performance of his work Sonnet Machine in 2016 and the premiere radio broadcast of Rainbow-Shooting Cloud Contraption in March 2021.
The BBC Philharmonic and violinist Daniel Pioro will present a programme of new orchestral arrangements by Coult in a concert conducted by Ryan McAdams on 19 May. This performance will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.
Previous composers to have been associated with the BBC Philharmonic include Mark Simpson, HK Gruber, James MacMillan and Peter Maxwell Davis.
Coult's St John's Dance opened the First Night of the 2017 BBC Proms in a performance by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and conductor Edward Gardner, and his chamber opera Violet will premiere at next year's Aldeburgh Festival.
'I love writing for orchestra – I think of writing music as playing with toys, and the orchestra is the biggest box of toys there is,' says Tom Coult. 'In the last year I’ve wondered whether that extravagant box of toys will ever be open to anyone again, so it’s an almost unimaginable luxury to be thinking about orchestral music for the next few years. I honestly can’t wait to work more with the extraordinary musicians of the BBC Philharmonic – I’m enormously lucky.'
