Composer

The Happy New Ears series 2025/2026 is a collaboration between Ensemble Modern, Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts and Frankfurt Opera.

Porträt Hannah Kendall

Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts

Open Young Ears! - Hannah Kendall

Deutsche Ensemble Akademie e.V.

When Jean Sibelius was working on his intensely beautiful and dramatic Fifth Symphony, he already sensed he was creating something remarkable. “I’ve received a wonderful theme,” he noted in his diary. The inspiration came from seeing sixteen swans in flight – a moment that gave rise to the magnificent theme of the symphony’s final movement. “One of the great experiences of my life! My God, what beauty.”

Sibelius and Songs from the Northern Wilds

Konserthuset Stockholm

Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra plays in Stockholms Konserthus together with principal conductor Pekka Kuusisto and singer Katarina Barruk.

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Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra plays in Stockholm

Stockholm Concert Hall

A concert about the power of language with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and Sámi singer Katarina Barruk, whose incredible stage presence combines folk tunes and pop in symphonic dress. Pekka Kuusisto leads the orchestra in Sibelius’ versatile Symphony No. 5.

Beyond Words with Kuusisto and Barruk

Göteborgs Symfoniker

The performance opens with a brand new piece by Liverpool-born composer, Nneka Cummins. Celebrating the ensemble in all its glory, Nneka creates electro-acoustic and acoustic music with a focus on colour, percussiveness and organic flowing melodies. His original sound worlds are formed of new sonic combinations and timbral blends.

Chineke! Orchestra Celebrates a Decade: Part Two

Southbank Centre

The performance opens with a brand new piece by Liverpool-born composer Nneka Cummins. Celebrating the ensemble in all its glory, Cummins creates electro-acoustic and acoustic music with a focus on colour, percussiveness and organic flowing melodies. The composer’s original sound-worlds are formed of new sonic combinations and timbral blends.

The world-renowned International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) from New York City and the Webern Ensemble Neue Musik of the mdw, under the direction of Clement Power, will perform a concert honoring George Lewis and his legacy as part of Wien Modern . The program will be complemented by works by Hannah Kendall and Chaya Czernowin.

Wien Modern: ICE x mdw: Polyaspora

Musikverein Wien

The London Sinfonietta brings its distinctive precision and energy to Warsaw Autumn (International Festival of Contemporary Music), presenting a compelling programme of new and boundary-pushing music from the UK, Poland, and beyond.

Among the Polish premieres is Laurence Osborn’s Mute – a series of “anti-concertos” exploring stifled voices and fractured solos. Across its movements, solo instruments are periodically engulfed by the ensemble, creating a subtle commentary on what I means to be heard in a crowd. Uniting first performances in Poland and the world premiere of Marta Śniady’s How can I help you?, the concert is a celebration of today’s most inventive composers. This is music that pushes against borders –of countries, of genres, and of how we listen.

World and Polish premieres in a night of fearless contemporary music

Fryderyk Chopin University of Music

Music of the Time #KEPPEL

WDR Funkhaus

Inspired by Ruth Adler Schnee’s textile Strata Echo, this concert explores the beauty of layered design in both fabric and sound. Hannah Kendall’s Network Bed weaves melodies in intricate patterns, followed by Frank Bridge’s Cello Sonata, where lines of music stretch and pivot with emotional depth. The evening concludes with Dvořák’s Piano Quintet No. 2, blending folk themes with sweeping romanticism.

Strata Echo

Temple Beth El

The program of Negative Space highlights music that explores space, absence, and the power of what’s left unsaid. Hannah Kendall’s Vera builds and unbuilds a musical structure using a twelve-tone row, creating a sense of shifting texture and hidden emotion. Ravel’s Piano Trio showcases his signature clarity and color, carefully balancing sound and silence to shape each moment. Michi Wiancko’s Fantasia for Tomorrow offers a heartfelt tribute to connection and hope, imagining a future that is just out of reach but deeply felt in the present.

Negative Space

Detroit Institute of Arts

Step inside St. Hugo of the Hills for an evening that explores the musical building blocks at the heart of great compositions. World-renowned organist James O’Donnell, former Master of Music at Westminster Abbey, leads a powerful program featuring organ concertos by Handel and Poulenc. Joined by works from Saint-Saëns and Composer-in-Residence Hannah Kendall, Cornerstone reveals how composers embed structure, contrast, and emotion into the smallest musical ideas—each one a foundation for something extraordinary.

Cornerstone

St. Hugo of the Hills Church

The motto "Stories that matter" sets the tone for the second edition of the Wiener Festwochen’s Academy Second Modernism. A public discourse event examines the possibility of a global, equitable music culture and how new ways of storytelling from a diverse perspective can succeed. The two concerts with Klangforum Wien are featuring 10 internationally groundbreaking female composers whose artistry shapes the global, second, feminist modernsim.

Wiener Festwochen - Academy Second Modernism: No More Excuses I

ORF RadioKulturhaus

Cornelius Meister and the Staatsorchester Stuttgart are once again performing a symphony cycle this season.
Following the complete Schumann and Brahms symphonies, the last six Mozart symphonies and symphonies by Pyotr I. Tchaikovsky, the focus is now on the only four major symphonies by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. His First, written at the age of 15, was premièred at the Mendelssohn home for his sister Fanny's birthday. This was followed in 1830 by the so-called "Reformation Symphony". However, as it only appeared in print posthumously in 1868, it was given the number 5.

6. Symphony Concert

Beethoven Hall (Beethovensaal)

Join the London Sinfonietta for the world premiere of Laurence Osborn's innovative composition, alongside new work by Hannah Kendall, and Luciano Berio’s O King, Chemins II and Folk Songs. This thought-provoking performance explores the voice, acceptance, and community, with poetry throughout by literary artist Belinda Zhawi.

Berio's Folk Songs

The young Spanish conductor Roberto González-Monjas makes his BSO debut with a testament to the universal power of music, culminating in a rare reading of Mendelssohn’s deeply spiritual “Reformation” Symphony.  Bartók's Third Piano Concerto, finished in his final days, peers into the unknown with grace and humility, qualities brought to the forefront through the sensitive artistry of the Korean pianist Yeol Eum Son. The British composer Hannah Kendall harnesses ordinary sounds and everyday objects in an imaginative new work.

Mendelssohn & Bartók

Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall

The Music Center at Strathmore

Join us for an unforgettable evening as Taichi Fukumura takes the podium to conduct a stirring program featuring Brahms' Symphony No. 4, a masterpiece of rich, autumnal hues and profound emotional depth. This concert, part of the Eugene Symphony's 2023/24 season, promises to be a highlight of the musical year.

**Event Details:**
- **Date:** Thursday, February 13, 2025
- **Time:** 7:30 PM
- **Location:** Hult Center for the Performing Arts

The evening will also showcase the extraordinary talents of American pianist Clayton Stephenson, a virtuoso known for his expressive power and narrative gifts. Stephenson will perform Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5, a work of heroic beauty and tragic depth, bringing his fresh and incisive interpretations to this beloved piece.

The concert opens with Hannah Kendall's "The Spark Catchers," inspired by a poem about women matchmakers in the 1880s, setting the stage for an evening of compelling storytelling through music.

**About Clayton Stephenson:**
Clayton Stephenson's journey from a young music enthusiast in New York City to a celebrated pianist on the world stage is a testament to his passion and dedication. His performances are marked by joyous charisma and a natural ease at the instrument, earning him accolades and the support of prestigious institutions and foundations. Currently, he is furthering his education in the Harvard-NEC Dual Degree Program, pursuing degrees in economics and piano performance.

**Health & Safety:**
The Eugene Symphony is committed to the health and safety of all attendees, musicians, and staff. We welcome and encourage patrons to wear masks if they choose and are dedicated to ensuring everyone feels comfortable and safe during their visit. For the most up-to-date health and safety protocols, please visit our Eugene Symphony Safety page.

**Tickets:**
Don't miss this remarkable evening of music with the Eugene Symphony. Secure your tickets now for "Taichi conducts Brahms" and experience the power of live symphonic music.

For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit the Eugene Symphony website.

Taichi conducts Brahms

Hult Center for the Performing Arts

This landmark year celebrates not only musical excellence and diversity but also its role in illuminating works of previously overlooked composers, reinforcing its commitment to an inclusive classical music world.

Southbank Centre: Chineke! Orchestra Celebrates a Decade

The orchestra begins a year of celebrations marking its tenth anniversary with a performance in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, which also hosted its 2015 debut.

Chineke! Orchestra Celebrates a Decade

Our concert opens with music from British composer Hannah Kendall. The Spark Catchers is inspired by the work of British poet Lemn Sissay, who memorialized the “matchwomen” of the Bryant and May match factory in London. The women went on strike in 1888 to protest their dangerous working conditions. 

American saxophonist Branford Marsalis is known the world over for delivering boundary-pushing performances—pure truth in jazz. He will perform “Neruda Songs” by composer Peter Lieberson, based on the intimate love poems of Pablo Neruda. This fresh arrangement, for saxophone and orchestra, “traces the arc of love’s evolution” (laphil.com)—intensely emotional and filled with happiness and longing. 

Branford Marsalis: Cinematic Sax

Southam Hall

Our concert opens with music from British composer Hannah Kendall. The Spark Catchers is inspired by the work of British poet Lemn Sissay, who memorialized the “matchwomen” of the Bryant and May match factory in London. The women went on strike in 1888 to protest their dangerous working conditions.

National Arts Centre

In the depths of winter warm your soul and explore a rich selection of music, which weaves between past and present, combining seamlessly to create a beautiful sonic tapestry, in some of Scotland’s most atmospheric settings.

Concerts by Candlelight with Scottish Ensemble

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum

A concert that explores the transition between two great musical eras. Rachmaninoff's final masterpiece, Symphonic Dances, is like a swan song over Romanticism as he began to approach the end of his musical journey. In Hanna Kendall's The Spark Catchers, we meet the story of women in a match factory fighting for better working conditions, but with Bernstein, love and gang relations become the spark that ignites.

Symphonic Dances

Malmö Concert Hall

Superstar pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet performs Gershwin’s jazzy Piano Concerto in F. The season ends with Fate knocking on the door one more time when Kevin John Edusei conducts Beethoven’s immortal Fifth Symphony. 

Beethoven's Fifth & Thibaudet Plays Gershwin

Hilbert Circle Theatre

Superstar pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet performs Gershwin’s jazzy Piano Concerto in F. The season ends with Fate knocking on the door one more time when Jun Märkl conducts Beethoven’s immortal Fifth Symphony.

Beethoven’s Fifth & Thibaudet Plays Gershwin

Experience an extraordinary musical union as the talented young musicians of our own Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra and our guests from the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra join forces for an electrifying and inspiring performance.

TSYO & Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra

David Pecaut Square

The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra are coming together for a unique exchange experience. Please join us in welcoming the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra to Blossom Music Center for a performance that will include a side-by-side orchestra of nearly 200 young musicians performing Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4.

The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra

Blossom Music Center

Featuring “some of the brightest young classical musicians in the world” (Time Out New York), Decoda is Carnegie Hall’s first-ever affiliate ensemble, comprising alums of the adventurous Ensemble Connect. Copland’s Appalachian Spring—celebrating its 80th anniversary this season—serves as an inspiration and departure point for this unique program. Experience a premiere composed by and featuring Ringdown, the new electronic cinematic pop duo of Caroline Shaw and Danni Lee; an American folk–inspired septet by Copland’s friend Hanns Eisler written shortly before his expulsion from the US; a new arrangement of Billy Bragg’s setting of Woody Guthrie’s “Eisler on the Go”; and the dynamic Vera by Hannah Kendall.

Decoda

Carnegie Hall

In this exciting series of contemporary music, Kwame Ryan conducts World Premieres by Melinda Wagner and Mary Kouyoumdjian. These works were commissioned as part of Project 19, the largest women-only commissioning initiative in history.

Sound On: Eötvös, Kendall, van der Aa, and Kouyoumdjian

Lincoln Center

Join Principal Guest Conductor Dalia Stasevska and the BBC Symphony Orchestra for works by 3 UK and 2 American composers. There’s the UK premiere of RE|Member, by American Reena Esmail, who works between Hindustani and Western classical music – and the world premiere of Drifting Haze by a former BBC Proms Young Composer, Sasha Scott. We travel to ancient China with Dame Judith Weir’s Natural History, a setting of four brief texts taken from Chuang-tzu, a classic collection of Taoist writings – with soprano Lucy Crowe.

Celebrate women composers and performers with the BBC SO

BBC Maida Vale Studios

We mark the anniversary of our first-ever concert with a celebration of the eclectic, provocative, surprising and beautiful music we have commissioned and performed throughout our history. Performing a mix of new commissions and classic chamber repertoire written specially for the ensemble over the years, we will be joined by special guests for a festive evening of new music. 

Decades

Principal Conductor Ryan Bancroft joins us on the road again this autumn, kicking off the programme with Hannah Kendall’s The Spark Catchers. From its vigorous liveliness and rhythmic drive to its brooding melodies and distinguished gleaming delicacy, the work is based on Lemn Sissay’s wonderfully dynamic and vibrant poem of the same name.

Dvořák 8 with Ryan Bancroft

Bangor University

Aberystwyth Arts Centre

A vibrant array of works handpicked by the Spokane Symphony musicians, including a contemporary piece based on artwork by Jean-Michel Basquiat, the champion of street art and neo-expressionism. We expand our symphonic color with the sound of the organ for Camille Saint-Saëns’ “Organ Symphony.”

Masterworks 2: Symphonic Graffiti

Martin Woldson Theater

As New Century embarks our second European tour, we invite you to join us on a series of musical journeys inspired by ideas of the past. Two works explore America’s identity as a melting pot, including Jessie Montgomery’s Banner, a reimagining of our national anthem, and Nico Muhly’s Stranger, a song cycle with tenor Nicholas Phan that reflects on the American immigrant experience. British composers offer masterful tributes to their predecessors in two landmark works from the 20th century: Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis and Benjamin Britten’s Variations on a Theme by Frank Bridge. The world premiere of a new work by Hannah Kendall rounds out the program.

Points of Origin

First Congregational Church

The Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center

Presidio Theatre Performing Arts Center

Osher Marin Jewish Community Center

Kinetic and frenetic, Hannah Kendall’s The Spark Catchers paints a vivid picture of the activity inside match-making factories in the 1800s, complete with soaring melodies and harmonic power. Then, virtuoso pianist Olga Kern makes her Minnesota Orchestra debut in Edvard Grieg’s distinctly Norwegian Piano Concerto. Conductor Christoph König also debuts in these concerts, leading the Orchestra in Robert Schumann’s Rhenish Symphony, a work that was sparked by Schumann’s move to the Rhine River and his visits to the spectacular Cologne Cathedral.

Grieg Piano Concerto

Orchestra Hall Minneapolis

The Ann Arbor-based violin/percussion duo offers “Electrovision,” a program juxtaposing acoustic and electronic, new and newer music, harmony and dissonance, and song and dance.

Vision Duo: Electrovision

Wayne State University

Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances

Davies Symphony Hall

Among the greatest of all orchestras today, the legendary London Symphony Orchestra will return to Santa Barbara in March 2022 for a special 5-day residency with the Music Academy of the West led by Sir Simon Rattle who is universally recognized as one of the world’s leading conductors, having served since the early 1980’s as Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic and currently with the LSO.  Join CAMA and the Music Academy of the West for this not-to-be-missed historic Santa Barbara classical music concert collaboration. Single tickets for this concert on sale Tuesday, January 18, 2022. Subscribe today to assure seats!

London Symphony Orchestra

Granada Theatre

Sir Simon Rattle conducts the legendary London Symphony Orchestra in a performance of beautiful finesse and masterful playing.

Ranked as one of the world’s top orchestras, the London Symphony Orchestra has been an established presence in classical music for over 100 years with a reputation for uncompromising quality and inspirational repertoires. The orchestra is the recipient of numerous awards, with several of their recordings inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

In his final year as the orchestra’s Music Director, Sir Simon Rattle continues to bring his invaluable expertise and experience to this renowned group, before moving on to the role of Chief Conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra of Munich in 2023.

London Symphony Orchestra with Sir Simon Rattle

Segerstrom Center for the Arts

Sir Simon Rattle conducts the legendary London Symphony Orchestra in a riveting program, opening with Berlioz's exciting Le corsaire concert overture, inspired by the rolling movements of the French oceanside. Also on the program are Sibelius’ masterful Symphony No. 7, dance-inspired works such as the suite from Bartók’s ballet The Miraculous Mandarin and Ravel’s wildly dramatic La valse, along with British composer Hannah Kendall’s The Spark Catchers, which premiered at the 2017 BBC Proms to critical acclaim.  Ranked as one of the world’s top orchestras, the London Symphony Orchestra has been an established presence in classical music for over 100 years with a reputation for uncompromising quality and inspirational repertoires. The orchestra is the recipient of numerous awards, with several of their recordings inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

A world-class orchestra! A legendary conductor! The renowned London Symphony Orchestra (LSO), under the direction of its esteemed music director Sir Simon Rattle, visits in its Cal Performances debut with a breathtaking program centered on three riveting 20th-century masterworks. Composed within a handful of years of each other, Sibelius’ sublime Seventh Symphony, Bartók’s energetic suite from The Miraculous Mandarin, and Ravel’s ecstatic La valse explore a kaleidoscope of orchestral color and feeling, exploiting the unique musical rapport between this stunning orchestra and its brilliant leader; a pairing the New York Times has praised for its “transparent, lean, passionate” performances.”

Chamber Music: London Symphony Orchestra

University of California, Berkeley

The adventurous Pekka Kuusisto, who successfully premiered Daníel Bjarnason’s Violin Concerto at the Hollywood Bowl 2019, returns as the protagonist for the recent piece by the prolific Nico Muhly, conducted by the one-and-only Esa-Pekka Salonen. Kuusisto also collaborates on this program with composer and sound artist Ellen Reid (p r i s m), who will share some of her own extraordinary music.

Pekka Kuusisto + Ellen Reid

Walt Disney Concert Hall

Music Director Jaap van Zweden conducts masterpieces by Haydn, father of the symphony, and Beethoven, who set the path to the Romantic era in his Third Piano Concerto; the formidable Yefim Bronfman is the soloist. The concert opens with the “marvelous array of colors” (The Seattle Times) of Hannah Kendall’s Kanashibari.

Beethoven, Haydn, and Hannah Kendall

The biblical Book of Genesis provided the inspiration for commissioning seven concise works from seven different composers: Lisa Streich (Sweden), Francesco Filidei (Italy), Chen Yi (China/USA), Hannah Kendall (England), Mikel Urquiza (Spain), Saad Haddad (USA), and Mark Andre (Germany). These new Genesis compositions will be performed after the overture from Darius Milhaud’s ballet La création du monde has already set the musical theme. They will be followed by Kaija Saariaho’s last completed work, the trumpet concerto Hush, written for the jazz trumpeter Verneri Pohjola. Finally, we will turn our attention to the soaring geyser fountains of Iceland, which Jón Leifs, a native of the world’s largest volcanic island and a composer of extraordinary sonic power, translated into musical form and energy.

Matthias Pintscher

Munich Residence

Join us for a compendium of Black Art Song focused on the female voice, devised by leading soprano Gweneth Ann Rand and pianist Allyson Devenish.

Words like Freedom: Gweneth Ann Rand and Allyson Devenish

Guildhall School of Music & Drama

The Always, Already There Ensemble are joined by three stellar singers at this celebratory concert marking the end of our Always, Already There weekend.

building a burning house

Milton Court Concert Hall

Liadov conjures magical landscapes while Tchaikovsky navigates anguish and triumph – plus the premiere of Hannah Kendall’s eagerly anticipated new work.

Composer

Hannah Kendall

Events

Upcoming events

Oct 9, 2026

Matthias Pintscher · Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra

Oct 25, 2026

Words like Freedom: Gweneth Ann Rand and Allyson Devenish · Barbican Centre

Oct 25, 2026

building a burning house · Barbican Centre

Oct 29, 2026

London Symphony Orchestra/Sir Antonio Pappano · Barbican Centre

Past events

May 13, 2026

Porträt Hannah Kendall · Ensemble Modern

May 12, 2026

Open Young Ears! - Hannah Kendall · Ensemble Modern

About

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