Britten Pears Young Artist 2021/22

Composer

Robin Haigh writes music that channels the frivolity and opaque nostalgia of millennial life into a kind of hazy 21st century romanticism. His 'completely refreshing', 'magical' recorder quintet In Feyre Foreste earned him a British Composer Award in 2017 aged just 24, and his 'quirky, playful, bold and original' Britten Sinfonia commission Grin won an Ivor Novello Award in 2020.

Robin’s individual approach to music is informed by his early experiences writing for the progressive metal band he played in as a teenager growing up in Newham, East London. His pieces are often based on unusual concepts: Samoyeds (for the Ligeti Quartet) makes music out of the sounds of howling dogs: Aesop (an LSO commission) asks orchestral performers to play on recorders, and No One (commissioned by Presteigne Festival) reimagines the harp via Homeric memes.