Luke Bedford

Luke Bedford (born 25 April 1978) is a British composer.

Bedford was born in Wokingham, Berkshire, where he was educated at St Crispin's School. He studied composition with Edwin Roxburgh and Simon Bainbridge at the Royal College of Music, and won the Mendelssohn Scholarship in 2000. This was followed by post-graduate study with Simon Bainbridge at the Royal Academy of Music. In 2007 Bedford signed to Universal Edition London.

Awards include the 2000 Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize for composers under 29 and the 2004 BBC Radio 3 Listeners' Award at the British Composer Awards. In 2007, Bedford became the first compositional recipient of a Paul Hamlyn Artists' Award since David Sawer in 1993. 2007 also saw him receive a nomination for the Royal Philharmonic Society large-scale composition prize, for his song cycle On Voit Tout En Aventure. In 2008, Bedford received his second British Composer Award for his 2007 orchestral work Wreathe.

On the 24 January 2008, director of the Wigmore Hall John Gilhooly announced Bedford as the venue's first ever Composer-in-Residence. “Luke Bedford is an important young voice and a distinctive musical force, and we are very pleased that he has accepted our invitation to become our Composer-in-Residence from 2009. The position will involve composition as well as working with the Hall’s Community & Education programme.”

Luke is married to Katie (née Fox), and currently resides in Berlin.

Selected works

Stage

• Seven Angels, Chamber Opera in 2 acts for 7 singers and 12 instruments (2009–2011)

Orchestral

• Rode with Darkness (2003)
• Outblaze the Sky (2007)
• Wreathe (2007)
• Più Mosso for large orchestra (2009)
• Instability (2015)

Concertante

• Wonderful Two-Headed Nightingale for violin solo, viola solo and 15 players (2011)

Ensemble

• Five Abstracts for 14 players (2000–2001)
• Catafalque for large ensemble (2002)
• Man Shoots Strangers from Skyscraper for 8 players (2002)
• Slow Music for 8 players (2005)
• Or Voit Tout En Aventure for soprano and 16 players (2006)
• By the Screen in the Sun at the Hill on the Gold for 18 players (2008)
• Self-Assembly Composition No. 1 for any instruments (2009)

Chamber and instrumental music

• Chiaroscuro for violin, cello and piano (2002–2005)
• Of the Air for string quartet (2008–2009)
• Great Bass Rackett for solo bassoon (2009)

Piano

• Catafalque (2002)

Vocal

• Good Dream She Has for soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor and chamber ensemble (2007)
• On Time for choir and orchestra (2008)
• Upon St. George's Hill for tenor and guitar (2008)

External links

• Luke Bedford biography and works on the UE website (publisher)
• Tom Service, 'I'm inspired by Stockhausen, Xenakis ... and Seinfeld'. The Guardian, 4 February 2005
• Interview with Luke Bedford, LSO and UBS Sound Adventures
• Tom Service, 'The sounds of the future' The Guardian, 4 October 2007