I am a composer living in south London.
My piece Flower was recorded by the BBC at the Aldeburgh Festival 2019 and was later broadcast on the New Music Show. In 2022 I made One Two for Bastard Assignments and Ensemble Garage which was performed in Cologne. I also performed my multi-tracked piano piece ILYSM at Cafe OTO in London. Other significant performances of my work include Will at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo in 2020, Hold at 2017’s hcmf// and Tape Piece at LCMF 2015.
Since 2013 I have worked with Bastard Assignments; curating, performing and contributing work to regular shows in London and internationally. In 2019 we performed at the Aldeburgh Festival, Spor Festival in Aarhus and nyMusikk in Oslo and released an album. In 2018 we recorded a session for Late Junction on Radio 3 and travelled to Chicago for performances with Mocrep. Our performances at Southbank Centre in 2016 and Wellcome Collection in 2017 were broadcast live on BBC Radio 3. From 2017-2019 we were resident on the Open Space programme at Snape Maltings. In 2020 and 2021 Bastard Assignments embarked on a programme of online only pieces: Lockdown Jams. We made our own and commissioned leading composers and choreographers funded by Arts Council England. In 2023 we are developing several large scale pieces for 2024 and 2025. Bastard Assignments have featured in articles and profiles in the Guardian, the Telegraph, The Wire, Frieze, Positionen, Neue Zeitschrift für Musik and Financial Times.
I studied music at the University of Cambridge and composition at Trinity Laban where I was awarded the Directors’ Prize for Composition. In 2016 I was a member of Jennifer Walshe and David Helbich’s Composer-Performer workshop at the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt.
I write about music for The Wire, Positionen and Arts of the Working Class. I wrote about Bastard Assignments in relation to Jennifer Walshe’s essay The New Discipline in ‘Die Neue Disziplin’, MusikTexte 149.
I teach composition and music history at Morley College, City Lit and Trinity Laban’s junior department and run a community choir in Brixton for Certitude.
© 2023 Edward Henderson