Download Oscar Bettison

Oscar Bettison
Long Biography
Oscar Bettison's work demonstrates a willingness to work within and outside the
confines of concert music. Often, he likes to work with what he calls Cinderella
instruments (i.e. instruments that, for one reason or another are ‘off-the-beaten-path’),
either by making percussion instruments, by re-imagining unconventional instruments
and by writing for less-than-standard ensembles such as six pianos or four drum kits.
More recent pieces have featured some electro-acoustic elements. His evening-long work
O Death is concerned with bringing all these strands together.
Oscar Bettison was born in the UK. After studying in London with Simon Bainbridge at
the Royal College of Music and with Robert Saxton at the Guildhall School of Music and
Drama he went to the Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague where he studied with
Louis Andriessen and Martijn Padding. He hols a PhD from Princeton University where
his advisor was Steve Mackey. He was a fellow at the Tanglewood (2001) and Aspen
(2007) music festivals.
He is the recipient of the Yvar Mikhashoff Trust for New Music Pianist/Composer
Commissioning Project (2009) a Jerwood Foundation Award (1998) the Royal
Philharmonic Society Prize (1997) and the first BBC Young Composer of the Year Prize
(1993). He was a Naumberg fellow at Princeton University from 2003-2007.
He has received commissions from the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association (2012),
MusikFabrik (2012), Dartmouth University -for a new project with So Percussion (2012),
The Tonlagen Festival in Hellerau, Germany (2010), The Roundhouse, London (2010),
The Bang on a Can All-Stars (2010), Ensemble Klang (2006 & 2009), the Orkest De
Ereprijs (2004), the Eliza Miller Dance Company (2004), the Oxford Contemporary
Music Festival (2001), the New London Children’s Choir (1998), the London Sinfonietta
(1997), and the BBC (1996), as well as receiving commission grants from the Rockefeller
New York State Music Fund (2007), the New York State Council on the Arts (2007)
F.A.P.K. (The Netherlands, 2007) The Netherlands America Foundation (2006) and the
Danspace Project 2006-2007 Commissioning Initiative.
In addition to having works premiered on three continents (Europe, North America and
Australia), his work has received press coverage in the UK, the US, the Netherlands, Italy
and Australia and has been featured on British Radio, BBC Television, Australian Radio
as well as being profiled in The Times (London).
Recordings include the full-length album O Death with Ensemble Klang and B&E (with
aggravated assault) recorded by Newspeak on New Amsterdam Records.
Recent projects include include a new work for the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music
Group, co-commissioned by the German contemporary music ensemble MusikFabrik,
the world-premiere of which will take place in Los Angeles in April 2012 conducted by
John Adams, with the European premiere to follow, and a new piece for So Percussion.
Jan 2012