Born in London in 1951, James Erber worked as Music Editor for Peters Edition before further study with Jonathan Harvey and Brian Ferneyhough. He combined composition with teaching and lecturing, including three years in the Music Department at Goldsmiths’ College. In 1994 and 1996 he was shortlisted for the prestigious Hinrichsen Foundation bursary, and in 1994 received a Holst Foundation Award.

Erber’s music has been performed and broadcast widely throughout Europe, in Australia, New Zealand and the USA by soloists such as Mario Caroli, Matteo Cesari, Darragh Morgan, Ian Pace and Jonathan Powell, as well as by ensembles including Lontano and the Arditti Quartet.

Winner of the 2010 Kranichsteiner Music Prize for performance at the Darmstadt Summer Courses and of numerous other awards and scholarships, Matteo Cesari studied flute with Mario Caroli at the Conservatoire de Strasbourg, and is at present a doctoral student at the Paris Conservatoire, pursuing research into the works of Brian Ferneyhough and Salvatore Sciarrino.

He has worked with many of the leading figures in the music of our time, among them Pierre Boulez, Peter Eötvös, Salvatore Sciarrino, Ivan Fedele, Brian Ferneyhough, Stefano Gervasoni, Bruno Mantovani and Michael Finnissy.