Alasdair Nicolson (Course Director) was born and brought up on the Isle of Skye before going on to study at Edinburgh University. An award-winning composer, he is now regarded as one of the UK’s most important compositional voices. He has written music for many leading orchestras, ensembles and soloists in the UK and has been performed in concert halls and festivals over the world from New York to Chile, Sydney to Tokyo, and is broadcast extensively on BBC Radio 3. Commissions have included writing for the BBC Orchestras, English National Opera, the London Symphony Orchestra, Nash Ensemble, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and artists such as Joanna Macgregor and Catherine Wyn Rogers.

Alasdair was Composer in Association with the City of London Sinfonia (1998-2005) and has a strong commitment to music education: he has been Artistic Director the Sound Inventors project, for which he developed his Composition Kits, he taught at the Britten Pears Summer School (2002) and co-hosted the composition summer school held by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies on Hoy (1996). He has also lead workshops at many of the UK's universities and conservatoires. His versatility has made him in great demand in the theatre, and has worked closely with writers David Harrower, Janice Galloway and Stewart Conn and the film-maker Philip Ridley. Recent works include commisions for the St Magnus Festival, Cheltenham Festival, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Nash Ensemble, and the London Symphony Orchestra. He is also working on an operatic adaptation of the novel "The Cone Gatherers" by Robin Jenkins and a third volume of his book on composition the Composition Kit 3.

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Co-Director Sally Beamish's work embraces chamber, vocal, choral and orchestral music, and is performed and broadcast internationally. She has received commissions from the USA, Japan, Australia, Scandinavia and Europe. From 1998-2002 she was composer in residence with the Swedish and Scottish Chamber Orchestras, for whom she wrote four major works. Her Knotgrass Elegy was commissioned by the BBC Proms (2001), and an opera, Monster, based on the life of Mary Shelley, was commissioned by the Brighton Festival and Scottish Opera, with a libretto by Scottish novelist Janice Galloway. Her trumpet concerto for Håkan Hardenberger and the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland, conducted by Martyn Brabbins, was performed at The Proms in 2003. Her 2004 concerto for percussionist Evelyn Glennie, Trance o Nicht, received its premiere in the Northern Lights Festival, Tromsø, and her new flute concerto, commissioned by the RSNO, was premiered and recorded by Sharon Bezaly in 2005. Sally also co-directed the Hoy Summer School for Composers with Sir Peter Maxwell Davies.

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Sir Peter Maxwell Davies is universally acknowledged as one of the foremost composers of our time. He has written across the widest gamut of musical genres and in many styles. His huge output of orchestral works includes fourteen concertos, several light orchestral works, five works for chorus and eight symphonies. A number of his most important works have been premiered at the St Magnus Festival, including music theatre pieces for children and other works for community performers in Orkney. Maxwell Davies has held the posts of Conductor/Composer of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and of the BBC Philharmonic, and is Composer Laureate of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. He was appointed Master of the Queen's Music in 2004. He ran a hugely successful Composition Summer School on the island of Hoy for eight years until 1996.

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, the leading new music and music-theatre ensemble in the North of England, was formed in 1991 by its Artistic Director Tim Williams. With Nicholas Kok recently appointed as its first Principal Conductor, the eight-strong Psappha has an extensive and exceptionally varied repertoire of over 300 works and a reputation for technical assurance and interpretative flair. Its distinctive concert series and mini-festivals have featured commissions and other premieres of works by a wide range of composers including the award-winning music-theatre work, MR EMMET TAKES A WALK, by its Patron, recently released on Psappha's own CD label.

Based in Manchester, Psappha has appeared throughout the UK, at most of the country's major music festivals, including the BBC Proms in 2004, and in special Henze and Maxwell Davies portrait series in London. It has made highly successful tours to North and South America, Australia, Belgium, France, Holland, Ireland, Jersey, Portugal and Spain. In addition to six recordings on various labels, it launched its CD label in 2004 with Maxwell Davies's EIGHT SONGS FOR A MAD KING and MISS DONNITHORNE'S MAGGOT. Education projects for people of all ages represent an important part of Psappha's busy schedule both in the UK and abroad. It was awarded the Swatch City Life Award for Best Concert Series and Education Work and is currently The University of Manchester's Contemporary Ensemble in Residence.