Curated By… places audiences at the heart of a composer’s creative world, and in this opening edition Ben Nobuto offers an intimate window into the sounds and ideas that shape his imagination.

Working with the adventurous Festival Voices and guest violinist Rakhi Singh, he curates an evening that pairs his own music with the works and influences that have guided his artistic development.

Nobuto frames the programme in his own words:

‘I always felt I came to vocal music through a side door, discovering composers and styles by accident and making surprising connections across time periods, like listening to music on shuffle. This is a selection of that playlist – 21st‑century hockets, Notre Dame polyphony, Renaissance madrigals, voices with violin and electronics – music that has moved me, shocked me, delighted me, and changed how I think about my own.‘

Music by Pérotin and Gesualdo sits alongside pieces by Michael Harrison, Meara O’Reilly, Catherine Lamb, Caroline Shaw, Tom Coult and Paul Clark. Early works act as reference points within a contemporary sound world, revealing how musical ideas shift while staying connected to the past. With fast‑paced exchanges, slow‑building harmonies and vivid ensemble textures, the programme traces the threads that shape Nobuto’s distinctive vocal language.

This event will last approximately 75 minutes, with no interval.

Festival Voices

Festival Voices has rapidly built a reputation as one of the UK’s most forward-thinking vocal ensembles. Under the co-artistic direction of founders Gregory Batsleer and Oskar McCarthy, the ensemble creates transformative choral experiences through bold, cross-genre collaboration, with performances at venues including Southbank Centre, Kings Place, the London Handel Festival and Bold Tendencies.

Committed to commissioning new work and collaborating across disciplines, Festival Voices rethinks how and where choral music is heard, engaging new audiences in powerful and unexpected ways. The ensemble’s performances are known for their clarity, precision and emotional depth, offering audiences a choral experience that is both rooted in tradition and creatively ambitious.

Rakhi Singh

Rakhi Singh is a violinist, music director and composer based between Manchester and London. She is co-founder of Manchester Collective, leading bold programming from Julius Eastman at the 2022 Proms to a new wave of British composers including Hannah Peel, Ben Nobuto and Oliver Leith.

Alongside her work with the Collective, Singh has established herself as a highly regarded violinist, touring with artists including Philip Glass, Abel Selaocoe and Hiromi, and performing internationally as a soloist at venues such as the Elbphilharmonie, Concertgebouw and Kings Place. Her work spans performance, recording and collaboration, including her debut solo album Purnima and projects with the Southbank Centre and Royal Opera House.

Ben Nobuto

Ben Nobuto is a British-Japanese composer based in London. Described as ‘sonically dazzling’ (RPS Awards) and ‘luminous and inventive’ (Ivors Awards), his music explores themes of attention and fragmentation, drawing from internet culture and popular idioms in a playful, ironic and surreal manner. He has previously written music for the BBC Proms, Manchester Collective, Nonclassical, National Youth Choir, BBC Singers and Colin Currie Quartet, and is currently working on a debut album.