Thomas Adès

Thomas Adès first won recognition as a pianist, winning Second Prize in the 1989 BBC Young Musician of the Year competition.

He studied piano with Paul Berkowitz and composition with Robert Saxton at the Guildhall School of Music, then read music at Cambridge University. The BBC prize triggered a move towards composition and in 1990 his first opus, Five Eliot Landscapes, appeared.

Mr. Adès opera, The Tempest, won wide critical acclaim, confirming his reputation as the leading young British composer today. Besides his compositions, now numbering 26, he has been active as pianist and conductor for the Cheltenham and Aldeburgh Festivals, with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, the London Sinfonietta and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

He has performed his own music in Europe, the United States and Asia. In Helsinki, Music Nova organised a retrospective 'Focus', presenting 17 of his works.

His EMI recordings include opera, piano and chamber works with Mr. Adès frequently featured as pianist and conductor. He is currently Artistic Director of the Aldeburgh Festival, Music Director of the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, and Britten professor at the Royal Academy of Music.