Congratulations to the Winners 2010
Biography: Hugo
Hugo Ribeiro was born in Lisbon in 1983. In 2005 he completed a Bmus Hons degree in composition at the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa and subsequently obtained a Mmus degree at the Royal Academy of Music in London in 2007. During this time he participated in a variety of composition courses with composers such as Emmanuel Nunes, Salvatore Sciarrino, Philippe Hurel and John Chowning, amongst others.
In 2004 he participated in the summer composition courses in Darmstadt where he worked with Bryan Ferneyhough, Georg Friedrich Haas, Toshio Hosokawa and Tadeusz Wielecki.
Among the public performances of his music one can highlight the performance of Letter for Kundera for 14 players in the Festival Listen to the World! 2009 (Sweden) performed by the Ensemble Gageego!, conducted by Pierre-André Valade; and the premiere of the opera Os mortos viajam de metro at the S. Luiz Theatre in Lisbon in April 2010.
He has been distinguished with awards such as 1st Prize in the 2nd International Composition Competition Póvoa de Varzim “Orchestra Category” (2007) and won the national competition Opera in Creation 2008 at the S. Luiz Theatre in Lisbon (Portugal).
He is currently completing a PhD at Canterbury Christ Church University (England).
Biography: Ben
Benjamin Oliver lives in London and is working as the AHRC Postdoctoral Research Assistant in Composition for Cochlear Implant Users and as a lecturer in composition at the University of Southampton; and as a freelance composer, electronic musician, pianist and educator.
Ben was born in 1981 and grew up in Chatham, Kent, in the UK. He left home for Yorkshire and in 2005 graduated from the University of Leeds with distinction in his MMus in Composition. He recently completed his DPhil in Composition at the University of Sussex (graduation in January 2011) under the supervision of Sam Hayden where he was also an associate tutor in composition. He received financial support from the AHRC and a 2006 PRS Foundation Scholarship for his doctoral work.
Ben’s music has been performed internationally and in the UK by ensembles including: Orkest de Ereprijs (International Young Composers Meeting 2010, The Netherlands), Ostrava Banda (Ostrava Days Festival 2009, Czech Republic), Leeds University Union Symphony Orchestra, Black Dyke and Rothwell Temperance Brass Bands, LIMA Orchestra, Dan Stern’s Woodwork (London Jazz Festival 2008), The Mobius Ensemble with Hackney CYM Children’s Choir (Spitalfields Festival 2010), Yorkshire Philharmonic Choir, Labyrinth, Retorica Duo (Odessa Festival 2008, Ukraine), Musarc (London Festival of Architecture 2010), Kosmos, EMFEB Chamber Orchestra, NYX trio and Leeds Sinfonia. His fifty minute work Fasten Your Seatbelts, which aligned his own quartet with electronics, was premiered to critical acclaim at the 2007 Soundwaves Festival in Brighton. Groups including Orkest de Ereprijs, Gemini Ensemble and the Royal Academy of Music Manson Ensemble have performed his music in workshops.
