Intimate window into the sounds and ideas that shape Ben Nobuto

Curated By… places audiences at the heart of a composer’s creative world, and in this opening edition Ben Nobuto offers an intimate window into the sounds and ideas that shape his imagination.

Working with the adventurous Festival Voices and guest violinist Rakhi Singh, he curates an evening that pairs his own music with the works and influences that have guided his artistic development.

Nobuto frames the programme in his own words:

‘I always felt I came to vocal music through a side door, discovering composers and styles by accident and making surprising connections across time periods, like listening to music on shuffle. This is a selection of that playlist – 21st‑century hockets, Notre Dame polyphony, Renaissance madrigals, voices with violin and electronics – music that has moved me, shocked me, delighted me, and changed how I think about my own.‘

Music by Pérotin and Gesualdo sits alongside pieces by Michael Harrison, Meara O’Reilly, Catherine Lamb, Caroline Shaw, Tom Coult and Paul Clark. Early works act as reference points within a contemporary sound world, revealing how musical ideas shift while staying connected to the past. With fast‑paced exchanges, slow‑building harmonies and vivid ensemble textures, the programme traces the threads that shape Nobuto’s distinctive vocal language.