Ben Nobuto

Ben Nobuto is a British/Japanese composer, pianist and producer from Kent. With a style described as ‘postmodern’ (Nonclassical) and ‘utterly contemporary’ (Manchester Collective), his music explores themes of attention and fragmentation, often drawing from internet culture and popular idioms in a playful, ironic and surreal manner. More often, his music is concerned with the symbolic nature of sounds rather than the sounds themselves, how memory and meaning are embedded and transmitted sonically.

His works have been commissioned by ensembles such as Manchester Collective, CBSO, Manchester Camerata, Ligeti Quartet, NYCGB, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and Brother Tree Sound, and have featured on BBC Radio 6, Times Radio and Resonance FM, among others.

As a pianist, he often performs his own work, combining a genre-fluid approach to piano-playing with electronics, as in his performance at UK New Artists’ Leicester Takeover Festival in early 2022.

Ben graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2019, where he holds a BMus and MPhil Distinction award degree in Music. He was the recipient of the 2019 Bliss Prize for composition.

Biography

Ben Nobuto is a British/Japanese composer, pianist and producer from Kent. With a style described as ‘postmodern’ (Nonclassical) and ‘utterly contemporary’ (Manchester Collective), his music explores themes of attention and fragmentation, often drawing from internet culture and popular idioms in a playful, ironic and surreal manner. More often, his music is concerned with the symbolic nature of sounds rather than the sounds themselves, how memory and meaning are embedded and transmitted sonically.

His works have been commissioned by ensembles such as Manchester Collective, CBSO, Manchester Camerata, Ligeti Quartet, NYCGB, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and Brother Tree Sound, and have featured on BBC Radio 6, Times Radio and Resonance FM, among others.

As a pianist, he often performs his own work, combining a genre-fluid approach to piano-playing with electronics, as in his performance at UK New Artists’ Leicester Takeover Festival in early 2022.

Ben graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2019, where he holds a BMus and MPhil Distinction award degree in Music. He was the recipient of the 2019 Bliss Prize for composition.

Compilations with this composer

Compilations
CBSO Sounds New

Sounds New: 20 New Works Celebrating 100 Years of CBSO

NMC Recordings

20 short commissions from rising-star composers performed by The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra form an impressive showcase of the range and breadth of contemporary orchestral writing happening in the UK today

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Young composers

NYCGB Young Composers 4

NMC Recordings

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External Links

Music Map

Discover more about the classical music of today with NMC's Music Map, and exciting and educational online tool which enables you to see and hear the connections between composers, their teachers, pupils, influences and their works.

Music Map