Faber Music is delighted to announce a new publishing agreement with Tom Coult, a young composer who, though only twenty-five years of age, has already been championed by many of the UK’s major orchestras and ensembles. Mature, finessed and displaying an inventive and forward-looking musical mind, Coult’s work is an exciting addition to the Faber Music catalogue.
Coult (b. London, 1988) studied at the University of Manchester with Camden Reeves and Phillip Grange and is currently working towards a PhD at King’s College London with George Benjamin. His music is characterised by iridescent timbres, glistening harmonies and clear, articulate gestures. One thematic preoccupation is an interest in the fantastical – his Codex (Homage to Serafini) (premiered by the BBC Symphony Orchestra as the culmination of a year-long Sound and Music Embedded residency in 2013) and his Rainbow-Shooting Cloud Contraption for fifteen players (written at Aldeburgh’s Contemporary Composition course in 2013) both draw inspiration from the imaginary encyclopaedia of Luigi Serafini whilst his Enmîmés sont les gougebosqueux for five players takes its title from Frank L. Warrin’s version of Lewis Caroll’s Jabberwocky (translating made-up English into made-up French).
Awarded the Royal Philharmonic Prize in 2013, Coult wrote his Four Perpetual Motions for ten players which were first performed by members of Philharmonia Orchestra at a Music of Today event at the Royal Festival Hall. His music has featured at several music festivals including Bangor New Music Festival, where the Orchestra of the Swan gave the premiere of his ambitious large ensemble work Antic Rounds in 2014. Currently a Sound and Music New Voices composer (2014/15), Coult is also an Associate Member of LSO Soundhub. In October he will be a featured composer at the ‘Soundings’ festival curated by the Fidelio Trio’s Mary Dullea at the Austrian Cultural Forum London. Coult has proven himself to be a passionate advocate for new music, too: in 2013, his lucid and insightful investigation of Pierre Boulez’s Sur Incises – ‘Refraction, Crystallisation and the Absent Idea(l)’ – was published in Tempo.
Coult was recently commissioned to write two Études for solo violin by the London Sinfonietta as part of their ‘Shorts’ series. They are hugely contrasting pieces, the first obsessive and strident, the later more unusual – serene, meditative and utilising a novel technique by which the violinist sustains hushed three-note chords. These Études – which join two earlier works to create a book of four – were premiered by the Sinfonietta’s leader Jonathan Morton in July and will be recorded for digital download by NMC.
Future projects include a commission for the strings of the Britten Sinfonia (to be premiered at London’s Milton Court on 20 March) and a work for the Mahler Chamber Orchestra commissioned by the 2015 Aldeburgh Festival.
At the signing on 3 June, Sally Cavender, Vice-Chairman of Faber Music, commented:
Tom Coult’s music is fresh and original. It appeals across a wide range of musical tastes, and has attracted the attention of many distinguished musicians. It will be a great pleasure to nurture this early promise and work alongside a composer whose talents are already indicating an exciting career ahead. He is a very special addition to the Faber family.
Tom Coult said:
I feel honoured, privileged and almost indecently thrilled to be signing with Faber Music. Having spent so many hours poring over scores by Faber composers, it’s very exciting to be working in such company, and I’m looking forward immensely to a long and productive relationship.
Watch a video profile of Tom Coult by the London Sinfonietta here