Kenneth Hesketh has been described as “one of the UK's most vibrant voices, having a brand of modernism that reveals true love for sound itself” (International Piano) and as "a composer who both has something to say and the means to say it” (Tempo magazine).
He has received numerous national and international commissions, including the Fromm Foundation, the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group premiered under Sir Simon Rattle, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic, Hans Werner Henze and the Endymion Ensemble (in honour of Henze's 75th birthday), the Munich Biennale, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, the London Sinfonietta, the Göttinger Symphonie Orchester, the Asko ensemble, ensemble Psappha, The Continuum Ensemble, The Opera Group, Britten Sinfonia, Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal, and Kissinger Sommer Internationales Musikfestival. He has been represented at festivals from London (Proms) to the USA (Tanglewood/Bowdoin) to China (Beijing Modern Music Festival).
Hesketh’s early interest in other art forms have turned more recently to a fascination with entropy, mutation and existentialism. His work has been described as “pure music, in possessing – because the notes seem to be creating their own harmonic and rhythmic forces and processes – a great freshness.” (Paul Griffiths). A strong compositional determinate for many of Hesketh’s works is a formal design through the use of transient and fixed group materials.
Hesketh has worked with an array of important conductors including Sir Simon Rattle, Vasilly Sinaisky, Vasily Petrenko, Susanna Malkki, Martyn Brabbins, Ludovic Morlot, and Pascal Rophé.
A MacDowell Fellow in both 1999 and 2000, he was composer in residence with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic from 2007-2009. Awards include the Shakespeare Prize scholarship by the Toepfer Foundation, Hamburg, the André Chevillion-Yvonne Bonnaud Foundation Prize for composition, France, and a British Composer Award in 2017 for his work In Ictu Oculi. A Paladino Music CD featuring Hesketh’s orchestral works was judged BBC Music Magazine Orchestra choice of the Month and called ‘An exhilarating and beautiful synergy of form and expression […]" and Hesketh described as "a composer at the height of his considerable powers.”
Portrait by E Thornton
