THE EXOPLANETS

Samantha Fernando has worked with numerous acclaimed ensembles and been featured at festivals in the UK and abroad. In 2013, she was awarded an RPS Composition Prize. Samantha’s music has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and released on labels NMC and Coviello Classics. In 2021 Samantha was a finalist for the Arts Foundation Futures Awards. 2021 also saw the opening of Current, Rising, a hyper-reality opera, directed by Netia Jones, designed by Jo Scotcher and produced by the Royal Opera House and Figment Productions.

Her first chamber opera, glass human, was a collaboration with multi-disciplinary artist Melanie Wilson. It premiered at Glyndebourne and toured venues across the UK in Autumn 2022 as part of the festival tour, directed by Lucy Bailey.

Samantha studied Composition at the Royal Academy of Music and the University of Oxford. She is a Senior Lecturer in Composition at Royal Holloway, University of London. 

Irish/British composer Robin Haigh works internationally with leading orchestras, ensembles, and soloists. Described as possessing an ‘idiomatic and unique compositional approach, blending together styles […] in a way that feels genuine, honest, real’ (What is Metamodern? Journal), Haigh’s output includes the orchestral works SLEEPTALKER (Ivor Novello Award Nominee) and Grin (Ivor Novello Award Winner 2020) written for the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Britten Sinfonia respectively, ensemble works AESOP 2 (Ivor Novello Nominee) and FILTH for Orchester im Treppenhaus, and the British Composer Award-winning recorder quintet In Feyre Foreste. 

Blasio Kavuma is a composer, producer, and DJ working at the intersection of classical and afro-diasporic music. He has worked with Nonclassical for a number of years, as composer-in-residence, and now as a label artist with his upcoming release Soundclash for cello and electronics. His most recent work, The Separating Line for AMC gospel choir and Manchester Camerata, was commissioned as part of the Royal Philharmonic Society composer scheme. Blasio has composed for theatre and opera, including Dawn Walton’s production of Antigone and Sky Art’s The Gods of the Game. He has also received the George Butterworth prize for his dance collaboration Spirit Level, with choreographer Si Rawlinson. Blasio is currently a doctoral student at Guildhall School with composer Julian Phillips, researching a new methodology of composition merging western classical and Afro-Diasporic music.  

Zhenyan Li is a Chinese composer and Chinese flute player based in London, whose work draws inspiration from theatrical elements, particularly the performance styles of traditional East Asian theatre. Recent highlights include Extrapolating for dance and orchestra, premiered by the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Queen Elizabeth Hall; Bamboo Echoes, commissioned by Tangram; and Orisons for countertenor and ensemble, commissioned by the Beijing Music Festival. Her opera Cummings & Goerings was staged at the Tête-à-Tête Festival. As an active collaborator, Li has worked with institutions such as the Architectural Association, London Film School, Leeds Lieder Festival, and SOAS University of London, and with artists including filmmaker Lulu Wang, percussionist Beibei Wang, and conductors Martin Rajna, Charlotte Politi, and Jessica Cottis. Li is also a Chinese flute player with the London Chinese Opera Studio and the Silk & Bamboo Ensemble at SOAS University of London. 

Pauchi Sasaki is a composer, film scorer, interdisciplinary artist, and film director. Her approach integrates musical composition with the creation of multimedia performances, the application of new technologies, and the development of self-designed instruments. In 2016, she became Philip Glass’ protégé as part of The Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. She also received the Ibermúsicas grant for sound composition with new technologies at CMMAS in Mexico, the Goethe-Institute’s artist residency in Brazil and Berlin, Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship, Columbia University’s Institute for Ideas and Imagination Fellowship, Hermitage Foundation, and the Prince Claus Fund. Commissions include ACO/Carnegie Hall, Silkroad Ensemble, and Pan American Games Opening Ceremony Lima 2019, among others. An active film scorer, ‘Pauchi Sasaki’s effective scores’ (Variety 2015) are featured in more than 30 feature and short films, having received four Best Original Score international awards. Her work has been presented at international venues and festivals such as the Tokyo Experimental Festival, Venice Biennale, Carnegie Hall, Cannes Film Festival, Walt Disney Hall, MET, The Kitchen, Gran Teatro Nacional del Perú, Festival Cervantino, the Art Basel Miami week, Lincoln Center, and John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, among other venues. 

Anibal Vidal is a London-based Chilean composer whose multifaceted career spans concert music, music for media, and multidisciplinary projects. Drawing on his South American heritage and a diverse range of musical influences, he creates immersive works characterised by gestural repetition and timbral experimentation. His creative process embraces a self-discovering approach to both traditional and unconventional instruments, incorporating the raw nature of objects and human voice. By blending these elements within a classical music setting, he cultivates an imaginative sound palette driven by the physicality of sound and direct contact with its source.  

Vidal has participated in many international festivals and his compositions have been performed by ensembles across Europe, America, and Asia. In 2024, he obtained the 2nd prize in the Matan Givol Composers Competition and, in 2022, he won the Joan Guinjoan International Prize and the DYCE Competition for Young European Composers.

Theo Whitworth is a multidisciplinary composer working across theatre, short film, installations, and radio. He has been the composer for curious directive on all of their work for the last nine years, and has written music for the acclaimed immersive theatre company SWAMP. Theo has also worked on short films, such as the prize-winning Arctic sailing documentaries Disko and Breskell, and composed for significant campaigns by leading international charitable organisations including Save the Children, WaterAid, the British Red Cross, and Arsenal Football Club. A multi-instrumentalist with a background in international touring and music production, Theo draws on a wide range of stylistic and creative influences. Much of his work is engaged with the process of scientific inquiry, exploring the creative possibilities inherent in subjects ranging from the natural world to the innermost workings of the human body. Finding new musical perspectives on those processes, as well as conveying the complexities of story and human emotion, is a central aim of Theo’s compositional practice.