Tom Coult is a composer born in London in 1988. His music has been championed by many of the UK’s major orchestras and ensembles, resulting in a series of acclaimed large-scale pieces including Beautiful Caged Thing for soprano Claire Booth and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Sonnet Machine for the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, and St John’s Dance (premiered by Edward Gardner and the BBC Symphony Orchestra to open the First Night of the 2017 BBC Proms).

He has enjoyed associations with ensembles such as Britten Sinfonia and London Sinfonietta (who premiered Spirit of the Staircase, nominated for a South Bank Sky Arts Award), and in 2021 will begin an association with the BBC Philharmonic with the premiere of Pleasure Garden, a concerto for violinist Daniel Pioro.

Further orchestral performances have come from Netherlands Radio Philharmonic and Royal Philharmonic Orchestras, while his chamber works have received performances by ensembles including Arditti Quartet, Psappha, Fidelio Trio, Riot Ensemble and musicians from the Philharmonia Orchestra. His first opera, Violet, commissioned by Music Theatre Wales and the Aldeburgh Festival, will premiere in 2022.

Coult studied at the University of Manchester with Camden Reeves and Philip Grange and at King’s College London with George Benjamin. He was Visiting Fellow Commoner in the Creative Arts at Trinity College Cambridge and has taught on the Britten Sinfonia Academy composition course and with Aldeburgh Young Musicians. Awards include the Lili Boulanger Memorial Fund Prize and the Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize.