Classical Next
Since 2017, we have led Scotland’s presence at Classical Next and, supported by Creative Scotland, we attend the annual showcase and expo with thousands of delegates from all over the globe.
We work with the Scotland delegation of composers, musicians and key organisations to shine a light on Scotland’s vibrant contemporary music scene.
Meet the 2024 Delegates
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Jo Buckley
IMPACT Scotland is the organisation overseeing the creation of the Dunard Centre, Edinburgh’s first new concert hall for more than a century.
Designed by David Chipperfield Architects with Nagata Acoustics, this landmark building will become home to the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the Edinburgh International Festival, and will host a diverse programme combining classical, pop, rock, folk, jazz, spoken word and electronica. As a vibrant, creative hub at the centre of the city, the Dunard Centre’s mission is to become a hall for all, bringing more music to more people, more often.
Prior to her appointment at IMPACT Scotland in 2023, Jo was Chief Executive of the Dunedin Consort, one of the world’s leading baroque ensembles. She is a Governor of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, a Trustee of the Royal Philharmonic Society and a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s Young Academy of Scotland.
dunardcentre.co.uk
Twitter: @DunardCentre
Facebook: @DunardCentre
Instagram: @dunardcentre -
Emma Campbell
Creative Scotland is the public body that supports the arts, screen and creative industries across all parts of Scotland on behalf of everyone who lives, works or visits here. They enable people and organisations to work in and experience the arts, screen and creative industries in Scotland by helping others to develop great ideas and bring them to life.
Emma Campbell’s work focuses on traditional, western classical, youth and community sectors..
Twitter: @CreativeScots
Facebook: /CreativeScotland
Instagram: @creativescots -
Claire Hewitt
Creative Scotland is the public body that supports the arts, screen and creative industries across all parts of Scotland on behalf of everyone who lives, works or visits here. They enable people and organisations to work in and experience the arts, screen and creative industries in Scotland by helping others to develop great ideas and bring them to life.
Clare Hewitt’s work has a focus on jazz and western classical music.
creativescotland.com
Twitter: @CreativeScots
Facebook: /CreativeScotland
Instagram: @creativescots -
Ben Lunn
Ben Lunn has forged himself a unique position within the new music landscape. As a composer, Lunn’s music reflects the material world around him, connecting to his North-Eastern heritage or how disability impacts the world around him or his working-class upbringing.
Alongside this, Lunn champions the work of other artists, creating unique collaborations with musicians from across the globe and developing unique concert experiences and opportunities. He has won accolades from the Scottish New Music Awards in both 2023 and 2020 for his work with Hebrides Ensemble and Drake Music Scotland, and in 2024 was shortlisted for the RPS Awards for his concerto History Needs... composed for Nicholas McCarthy.
In 2022, Ben Lunn became the first North-East composer to be selected for the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Composer Scheme which sees him paired with Music in the Round.
universaledition.com
benlunncomposer.tumblr.comFacebook: /benlunnmusic
Twitter: @benlunn
Instagram: @blunnmusic -
Kirsty Matheson
Kirsty Matheson is a Glasgow-based professional artist and orchestral musician. She has been described as an “artistic polymath” by Tom Service on BBC Radio 3, who called her art a “jaw-dropping kaleidoscope of images.”
In 2021 Kirsty asked the question “Can I paint music?” What followed was 100 paintings of 100 pieces of music in 100 days that sold out in 100 days. In 2022, Kirsty had her first solo exhibition at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. In 2023, she was commissioned to paint fifteen new artworks representing the Dunedin Consort’s season and was commissioned by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra to paint Jay Capperauld’s new work ‘The Origin of Colour’.
She is currently working on capturing Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire for the Hebrides Ensemble.
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Richard Greer
Richard develops and maintains international networks for the Scottish Music Centre, including collaborative projects which bring organisations, composers and musicians together to facilitate new opportunities and artistic possibilities. A composer and educator, Richard brings his vocational knowledge and experience of the sector to this role.
While at Classical:NEXT he is also the Scottish delegation manager, working to support his sector colleagues during the event.
From 2017 - 2023 Richard served as the Chairperson for the Scottish Music Centre, of which he is also a long-time member. He is currently a trustee for Govan-based music charity The Glasgow Barons.
As a composer he writes music for ensembles working in Scotland and internationally. Recent work includes ‘Each Other’, a multimedia project on the nature of our relationship with social technologies composed for Val Welbanks (Ligeti Quartet, Marsayas Trio) and Kevin Daniel Cahill (Cahill Costello).
Twitter: @scottishmusic
Facebook: /scottishmusiccentre
YouTube: @scottishmusiccentre -
Red Note Ensemble
John Harris - Chief Executive & Artistic Director
Stef Connix - Board Director
Ian Smith - Board Director
Sarah Mills - Acting General Manager
Since its formation, Red Note Ensemble has taken up a leadership position as Scotland’s contemporary music ensemble, performing and developing an extensive, highly varied and critically acclaimed programme of new music to the highest standards, and taking new music out to audiences across Scotland and internationally. -
Gill Maxwell
The Scottish Music Centre is a nationally and internationally recognised organisation at the heart of the Scotland’s music industry. From preserving Scotland’s music heritage with an ever-expanding archive to representing contemporary composers and musicians, the Centre supports, promotes and champions the wealth of talent in Scotland’s music community. They act as a conduit, a catalyst and a connector to those working in the sector and the public at home and abroad.
Gill Maxwell is Executive Director.
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Lisa Robertson
Lisa Robertson is a composer and violinist from the West Highlands of Scotland, particularly interested in examining human and environmental relationships and traditional Gaelic culture.
Her music has been performed by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, The Sixteen, EXAUDI, defunensemble, Red Note Ensemble, Psappha Ensemble, Lucy Schaufer and Heather Roche among others, and at festivals including Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (where she also performed
her own solo violin piece in 2019), Musica Nova Helsinki, Cheltenham Music Festival, West Cork Chamber Music Festival, Sound Festival and on BBC Radio 3, BBC World Service and BBC Radio Scotland. As winner of the RSNO Composers’ Hub 21/22, her piece was premiered by the RSNO with Thomas Søndergård. She has been shortlisted four times for the Scottish Awards for New Music and featured in BBC Music Magazine’s ‘Rising Stars’ column.
Lisa completed a PhD at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She attended masterclasses with Brian Ferneyhough at the Ferienkurse in Darmstadt and the late Sir Harrison Birtwistle at Dartington International Summer School. Taking part in the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain’s Young Composers Scheme, which led to pieces being released by Stainer & Bell, Choir & Organ magazine and NMC Recordings.
lisarobertsonmusic.com
Twitter: @OliSearle
Facebook: /lisa.robertson.1690
Instagram: @lisarobertson234
Listen on Soundcloud -
Nordic Music Days
Andy Saunders
As well as leading Scotland’s involvement in and hosting of Nordic Music Days (which will take place in Glasgow in 2024), Andy is a freelance horn player as well as the Performance Consultant for the University of Glasgow’s music department. He studied Music at the University of York before moving back north to Glasgow for his Masters degree at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.A former Solo Horn of Slovenian National Opera and Ballet in Ljubljana, he is now a member of the Rookh Quartet, and plays regularly with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Ballet, Royal Northern Sinfonia, and Red Note Ensemble. He has been a guest player with groups including Ensemble Modern, Chineke!, The Wallace Collection, and Le Concert Olympique.
Andy was Artistic Director of The Cottier Chamber Project and Co-Chair of New Music Scotland, where he now sits on the Board.
Nordic Music Days 2024 is a collaborative project between the Nordic Composers’ Council (NKR) and Scotland’s new music sector (facilitated by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra).
Twitter: @nordicmusicdays
Facebook: /nordicmusicdays
Instagram: @nordicmusicdays -
Rūta Vitkauskaitė
Rūta Vitkauskaitė is a composer working in concert music and beyond. Her scores have been awarded numerous prizes and performed at Apeldoorn, Sound (UK), Gaudeamus, Operadagen (NL), Nordbeg, Halland (SE), Gaida, NOA (LT), Q-O2 (BE) and SUSA (DK), while her work has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Deutschlandradio Kultur, Lithuanian Radio and TV. Outstanding musicians have performed her work, including the BBC Singers, Manchester Collective, Ensemble 360, Ligeti Quartet, Kaleidoscope, Apartment House, the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra and Martynas Levickis.
Part of her practice is collaborative and interdisciplinary projects: her opera for blind-folded audiences, Confessions (Spatial Opera Company), was awarded the Golden Stage Cross and toured across the EU with over 50 shows to date.
Rūta is a passionate advocate for new music. She initiated CoMA, Contemporary Music for All – Glasgow, is a Lecturer in Composition at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and a Deputy Director at Sound Festival (Aberdeen) with particular focus on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.
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Matthew Whiteside
Matthew Whiteside is a composer based in Glasgow and the Artistic Director of ‘The Night With...’. His music has been lauded as “effective and unsettling” by BBC Music Magazine and “post-minimalist bold sparseness” by the Herald. He won the Scottish Music Industry Association Award for Creative Programming at the Scottish Awards for New Music in 2020 and was named One to Watch by the Scotsman. Recent works include commissions from the United Strings of Europe, Scottish Opera Connect, Glasgow Barons and Crash Ensemble, and performances by Ensemble Offspring, Emily Thorner, Emma Lloyd and Juice Vocal Ensemble.
In 2024 Matthew published his first book, The Guidebook to Self-Releasing Your Music, to share his experiences of recording, producing, and marketing albums for the last 10 years. The book gives all musicians the knowledge to release their own music.
Alongside his composition work Matthew is also working as a sync agent, exploring the possibilities for contemporary classical music.
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Hebrides Ensemble
Nick Zekulin, General Manager
Hebrides Ensemble is one of the foremost chamber music collectives in the UK. Co-founded and led by Artistic Director William Conway, it is renowned for its fresh approach to programming with a focus on music of the 20th and 21st centuries, including almost 100 world premieres. This is an international ensemble with its roots in Scottish culture, which performs regularly at venues and festivals throughout the UK and Europe, such as the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam, Kings Place and Wigmore Hall in London, Aldeburgh Festival, St Magnus Festival, Lammermuir Festival, Cumnock Tryst, BBC Proms and Edinburgh International Festival.Hebrides Horizons supports the next generation of performers, composers, artistic directors and cultural leaders through its partnerships and mentoring programme, and Hebrides Digital allows audiences around the world to enjoy Hebrides Ensemble through digital technology
Hebrides Ensemble recently released the critically acclaimed Ursa Minor, featuring the music of Stuart MacRae.
hebridesensemble.comFacebook: /hebrides.ensemble
Instagram: @hebridesensemblemusic
Twitter: @heb_ensemble
Watch on YouTube
Watch on Vimeo
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Your guide to Scotland’s Delegation at Classical:NEXT 2024