Ben Foskett

Born in Rinteln, Germany, in 1977, Ben Foskett’s musical education began at the Junior Royal College of Music where he went on to study with Edwin Roxburgh. He went on to study with Simon Bainbridge at the Royal Academy of Music and since graduating in 2003, he has earned his living entirely as a musician – composing, copying and working as an orchestrator.

Foskett’s music is characterised by a strong narrative sense and this has been seen and heard to particular effect in a series of collaborations with the dance company Thresh, where music and movement have often evolved in tandem.  The most recent of these collaborations was The Absent Lover, developed and performed in India in 2007-08. His other dance collaborations have been performed in London and New York. In contrast with these experimental projects Foskett has also composed a more traditional, full-length score The Scarlet Pimpernel (2006) for the London Children’s Ballet. Writing for dance has in turn has fed a rhythmic suppleness into his solo pieces such as the convulsively brilliant clarinet solo Hornet (premiered in the Park Lane Group Series, 2002) and Hornet II. In 2009 he was commissioned by the BBC Proms to write a piece for the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The resulting piece, From Trumpet, was conducted by Susanna Mälkki.

Foskett’s Violin Concerto (2004), written for Clio Gould and the London Sinfonietta was recorded on the London Sinfonietta’s label; he has also contributed to the NMC Songbook.