Piers Hellawell

Piers Hellawell is a British composer and an academic whose compositions avoid traditional linear progression in favor of unique spatial arrangements. He studied under Nicholas Maw at the University of Oxford before becoming Composer-in-Residence at Queen's University. Two of his works, Ice Feathers and Narwhal Joust, appeared on the 2026 BIS release Northern Horizons. Born July 1956, he studied composition with James Wood before continuing at Oxford. At 24, he took up his position at Queen's University Belfast, beginning a 42-year association with the institution, during which he was appointed as Professor of Composition in 2002. He developed a particularly close relationship with the Hilliard Ensemble, writing The Hilliard Songbook (1995) for the group, which it recorded for ECM and has performed several times over the years. His breakthrough came with Inside Story, premiered at the BBC Proms in 1999 and later recorded for the Metronome label. From 2000 to 2003, he held the visiting Gresham Chair of Music in the City of London. During that period, a commission from Finland's Kaustinen Festival for the Hilliard Ensemble gave rise to The Pear Tree of Nicostratus, which it premiered with the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra in 2002. His double concerto Cors de chasse, written for trumpeter Håkan Hardenberger and trombonist Jonas Bylund, was premiered by the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Brighton Festival in 2004. Hellawell's 50th birthday coincided with premieres of Sound Carvings from the Bell Foundry by Stockholm Chamber Brass and Dogs and Wolves by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. A Leverhulme Fellowship supported his work on Syzygy, completed in 2013 for the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and Stockholm Chamber Brass. Further commissions followed, including Wild Flow, premiered at the BBC Proms in 2016, Symphonies in Chains with the Ulster Orchestra in 2020, and Rapprochement, a piano concerto written for Clare Hammond and premiered in 2023. He retired from Queen's University in 2024 and subsequently became a visiting professor of composition at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. His music has continued to receive new performances, including the Fidelio Trio's premiere of Arrowhead in Iowa City in February 2025 and the premiere of The Rising of Sirius by the Gould Trio and clarinetist Robert Plane at the Corbridge Chamber Music Festival in July that same year. ~ Prince Iwundu