27/04/2026
We’re delighted that Prof Michael Zev Gordon (University of Birmingham) will be joining us for the final Composition Seminar of 2025/26, following earlier postponements. In this session, Michael will reflect on his music and in particular on how and why he has followed a middle path between the modern and the traditional. All are very welcome to attend.
𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗣𝗢𝗦𝗜𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗦𝗘𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗔𝗥
𝗧𝘂𝗲𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝟮𝟴 𝗔𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗹, 𝟰:𝟭𝟬 𝗽𝗺
𝗕𝗼𝘆𝗱 𝗟𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗿𝗲, Cardiff University School of Music
𝗕𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗶𝘅𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗕𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗻: 𝗠𝗶𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗲𝗹 𝗭𝗲𝘃 𝗚𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗼𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝘂𝗽𝗼𝗻 𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗰
𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗳 𝗠𝗶𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗲𝗹 𝗭𝗲𝘃 𝗚𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗼𝗻 (𝗨𝗻𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗕𝗶𝗿𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗵𝗮𝗺)
Michael Zev Gordon’s music has been described as having “a clockmaker’s craftsmanship [which] somehow coincides with romantic phantasmagoria” (The Sunday Times). His teachers – Holloway, Goehr, Knussen, Donatoni, Andriessen and Woolrich – have informed a distinctive voice in which the contemporary and the traditional subtly coexist, with recurring themes of memory, time and serenity. His work has been performed by leading artists and ensembles including BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, and the choir of King’s College Cambridge. A double Ivors Classical Award winner and Prix Italia laureate, he has also released two portrait discs, On Memory (2009) and In the Middle of Things (2019), both named in The Times “100 Best Albums of the Year.”
Recent projects include the chamber opera Raising Icarus (2022), and the albums Diary Pieces (Resonus Classics, 2023) and The Impermanence of Things (NMC, 2024), featuring commissions from the BBC Symphony Orchestra and London Sinfonietta. His latest large-scale work, A Kind of Haunting (2025), reflects on the long shadow of the Holocaust, while 2026 will see him as featured composer at the Presteigne Festival. Michael Zev Gordon is Professor of Composition at the University of Birmingham.
