© Manchester Collective / Phil Sharp

About

Ben Nobuto is a British/Japanese composer, pianist and producer based in London. With a style described as ‘utterly contemporary’ (Manchester Collective) and ‘sonically dazzling’ (RPS Awards), his music explores themes of attention and fragmentation, drawing from internet culture and popular idioms in a playful, ironic and surreal manner. Often combining acoustic and electronic sounds, his interest lies in how processes from one can be applied to the other, and the relationship between the ‘human’ and ‘non-human’ in the context of a live performance.

Previous commissions include works for the BBC Proms, Manchester Collective, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, National Youth Choir, Colin Currie Quartet and BBC Singers. His music has featured on BBC Radio 3, 4 and 6, Times Radio and Resonance FM and has released on NMC Recordings and Nonclassical. He was recently awarded an Ivors Classical Award for his choral work Sol, a Royal Philharmonic Society Award for SERENITY 2.0 and an RPS nomination for Hallelujah Sim.

Upcoming projects include works for Ligeti Quartet, London Sinfonietta, Abel Selaocoe and Sean Shibe. He is currently working towards a debut album with the support of Sound and Music’s ‘New Voices’ scheme, which is set to release in 2025. 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.