Tom Coult has been appointed as the BBC Philharmonic’s Composer in Association, starting in Autumn 2021 with the premiere of Pleasure Garden, a violin concerto for Daniel Pioro.
In Tom’s new role, he will compose three new scores for the BBC Philharmonic. His appointment builds on an existing creative relationship with the orchestra, including Sonnet Machine in 2016 which was commissioned by the BBC Philharmonic and premiered at Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, and Rainbow-Shooting Cloud Contraption which was first broadcast in March on BBC Radio 3.
A concert of new orchestral arrangements by Tom was performed by the BBC Philharmonic and violinist Daniel Pioro conducted by Ryan McAdams in a live Radio 3 broadcast from Salford on 19 May.
Tom joins a distinguished line of composers associated with the BBC Philharmonic – including Mark Simpson, H K Gruber, James MacMillan and Sir Peter Maxwell Davis.
Tom Coult said:
“I’m so delighted to be Composer in Association with the BBC Philharmonic. 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. 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.”
Simon Webb, Director of BBC Philharmonic said:
“An exciting and brilliant young composer, Tom trained at the University of Manchester, understands and knows the BBC Philharmonic well and is clearly aware of the opportunities both for developing his own distinctive voice whilst also challenging the orchestra to develop its sound and identity. His first commission in post, Pleasure Garden for violinist Daniel Pioro with the BBC Philharmonic, marks the opening of the RHS Bridgewater Garden in Salford and is co-commissioned with the School of Science, Engineering and Environment at the University of Salford; everything about this new work, for performance this Autumn, articulates how Tom’s compositional roots are already deeply embedded here in Salford.”