Completing the international contingent at this year’s Mizzou New Music Summer Festival is resident composer Charlie Piper, who’s from London, England. Born in 1982, Piper (pictured) completed his master’s degree with distinction at the Royal College of Music and currently is doing doctoral research at the Royal Academy of Music.

His awards include the 2006 Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize and the 2007 prize at the 13th International Young Composers Meeting in Apeldoorn. Piper also was a New Music Associate at Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge from 2008 to 2010.

Piper’s music has been has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and performed at the Cheltenham, Huddersfield, Gaudeamus, Bang-On-A-Can and Aix-en-Provence Festivals, the Barbican Hall, the South Bank Centre, the Roundhouse, The Wigmore Hall, King’s Place and Le Grand Théâtre de Provence. Performers have included the London Symphony Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, the London Sinfonietta, Sentieri Selvaggi, The Esbjerg Ensemble, the Orkest ‘de ereprijs’, CHROMA, the English National Ballet and individuals such as Rolf Hind, Brindley Sherratt, Xian Zhang, Laurence Cummings, François-Xavier Roth, Martyn Brabbins, Yan Pascal Tortelier and Pierre-André Valade.

His recent work has included premieres in New York and Milan; a short residency in Gotland, Sweden; three performances of The Twittering Machine by L’orchestre des jeunes de la Méditerranée; and the premieres of Insomniac, commissioned by the London Sinfonietta, and Borderland, commissioned by Britten Sinfonia and taken on tour to Brighton, Cambridge, Norwich and The Wigmore Hall.

Earlier this year, Piper was appointed associate composer for Music in the Round in Sheffield, for which he will work closely with the organization’s resident musicians Ensemble 360, composing at least one 12-15 minute piece per year, plus additional short works. Piper’s first composition for Music in the Round will premiere this fall, and as he continues with the organization, he also will give talks, participate in question and answer sessions, and run workshops and open rehearsals.

You can read a short interview with Charlie Piper about his recent work Insomniac here, and hear the piece in the embedded audio player below. Also, there are more samples of Piper’s music on his website.

Charlie Piper’s Insomniac, performed by the London Sinfonietta with conductor Martyn Brabbins