Luke Bedford

Luke Bedford is a British composer who has quietly made a significant name among the composers of his generation with a series of award-winning scores that are now being performed internationally.

Luke was born in 1978 and studied composition at the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music with Edwin Roxburgh and Simon Bainbridge.

Bedford was the first ever composer in residence at the Wigmore Hall in London. Prizes include the prestigious Paul Hamlyn Artists Award in 2007, the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung Composer’s Prize in music 2012, and several British Composer Awards.

The song cycle Or Voit Tout En Aventure was premièred by the London Sinfonietta with Claire Booth (soprano) and Oliver Knussen in 2006. Tom Service wrote ‘one of the most outstanding pieces by any composer I’ve ever experienced – music of brooding expressive intensity and charged with that indefinable quality that makes a piece sound as if it was written out of sheer necessity.’

Orchestral works include: Rode With Darkness (2003) premiered by the Halle Orchestra under Mark Elder; Wreathe (2007) premiered by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Wonderful Two-Headed Nightingale (2011) for violin, viola and ensemble.

Bedford’s first opera Seven Angels was premièred in 2011 by the Opera Group and Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. His second highly acclaimed opera, Through His Teeth (libretto: David Harrower) was premièred at the Royal Opera House in 2014. Both have received further productions in Germany and the USA. More recently, Staggered Nocturne, a percussion concerto for Colin Currie and the Philharmonia was premiered at the Royal Festival Hall. 

As well as NMC, his music has been released on the Col Legno and bastille musique labels, covering chamber works and a complete studio recording of Through His Teeth.