sound:

Kenneth Dempster

Born and educated in Edinburgh, Kenneth began his advanced musical training at Edinburgh Napier University before going on to study at the Royal Academy of Music in London. At the RAM he was awarded eight prizes for his compositions as well as the Inter-Collegiate, Theodore Holland Award. Kenneth was awarded a variety of scholarships which enabled him to travel to the United States to study at Yale University. During his time at Yale, he studied with many eminent composers: Jacob Druckman, Martin Bresnick, Louis Andriessen, Earle Brown and Frederic Rzewski. He was also awarded two Yale University prizes for his music. On returning to Britain, he studied further with Sir Peter Maxwell Davies and James MacMillan on the Scottish Chamber Orchestra's Course for Young Composers.

Since completing his studies, he has received commissions for new pieces of music from a wide variety of ensembles and organisations: Emperor Quartet, Hilliard Ensemble, Hebrides Ensemble, English National Opera, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Edinburgh Quartet, Scottish Flute Trio, ECAT, Mr. McFall's Chamber, Scottish Chamber Choir and the St. Magnus Festival, as well as from soloists, Ursula Smith, Peter Evans, Owen Murray and Simon Thacker.

His orchestral work, Seven Fans for Alma Mahler, commissioned by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (conductor Thierry Fischer), was widely acclaimed by reviewers and audiences alike. He also conducted the first performances of a large-scale community opera on the subject of Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt, commissioned by the St. Magnus Festival to mark the 70th birthday of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies.

Recent commissions have been for groups as diverse as Mr. McFall's Chamber and the Edinburgh Quartet, and for the 2006 St. Magnus Festival, he was commissioned to compose a new music-theatre piece, A Hamnavoe Man to mark the tenth anniversary of the death of the Orcadian writer, George Mackay Brown. A new solo guitar work, Sanctum was commissioned by ECAT for the guitarist, Simon Thacker, who toured the work extensively in 2007. Father and Son (SATB choir and organ) was composed to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Scottish Chamber Choir and was performed by them with Michael Harris (Musical Director) and Peter Backhouse (Organ).

Kenneth leads many schools' workshops and has undertaken three major education projects with the Edinburgh Quartet in recent years. The largest of these projects, The Cold Dancer involved visiting 35 primary schools across all areas of Scotland. Most recently he has been working alongside the Scottish Flute Trio in schools in Fife region as part of the soundstreams project. This project included the commission of a new sextet, source for three flutes, clarinet, marimba and cello performed throughout Scotland in June 2010.

• website link for Kenneth Dempster: www.scottishmusiccentre.com/kenneth_dempster/
• events with Kenneth Dempster in previous sound festivals
• other artists and composers involved in sound 2010
• sound events in 2010