Brian Ferneyhough's residency at the School of Advanced Study

Brian Ferneyhough - William H Bonsall Professor at Stanford University - is one of the most original and influential composers in contemporary music. His work, recognised by such international awards as the Ernst von Siemens Musikpreis, evokes a compressed musical world of dislocated events, colliding pulses and shimmering textures. His highly elaborate notational practice invites performers constantly to reassess and question their relationship to the text. For some five decades he has continuously engaged with and provoked the debate to define a new artistic aesthetic for contemporary music, whether as creator, thinker, writer or teacher, in Germany, Europe and the US. His visit to London, in his 70th year,  as ST Lee Visiting Professorial Fellow School of Advanced Study, University of London, was a fitting tribute to an outstanding career and an acknowledgement of his connection to the University following the award of an honorary doctorate in 2012.