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 his works have been performed in concert halls and festivals over the world from New York to Chile , Sydney to Tokyo , as well as being 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 and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. 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 led workshops at many of the UK 's universities and conservatoires.

Click here for full biography and website

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.

Click here for Sally's website.

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.

Click here for full biography

Hebrides Ensemble
Edinburgh-based Hebrides Ensemble is Scotland's foremost contemporary music group, specialising in new, twentieth and twenty-first century chamber music, music theatre and chamber opera.

Led by the cellist and conductor William Conway and drawing upon the finest musicians within Scotland and Europe, Hebrides Ensemble tours frequently to venues from the far North of Scotland to the Wigmore Hall, performs at international festivals and broadcasts and records regularly. Acclaimed for its imaginative and innovative programming and outstanding quality of performance, the group has recently been invited to join the prestigious Re:New network of European contemporary music ensembles.

Its recent nomination for the Chamber Music category in the 2009 Royal Philharmonic Society Awards confirms recognition of the group's success.