Radius is a

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

music ensemble A musical ensemble, also known as a music group or musical group, is a group of people who perform instrumental and/or vocal music, with the ensemble typically known by a distinct name. Some music ensembles consist solely of instrumentalists, ...

founded in 2007 by the British composer Tim Benjamin. The ensemble specialises in the performance of

new music New music may refer to: Musical styles and movements Pre-20th century * Ars nova, musical style in 14th-century France and the Low Countries * '' Le nuove musiche'', collection of monody by Giulio Caccini * New German School, music style in late 1 ...

from around the world (though primarily in the Western

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...

tradition) written by living composers and 20th-century masters. The ensemble's artistic director is the British composer

Ian Vine Ian Vine (born 3 January 1974 in Portsmouth, England) is a British composer. Vine grew up in Libya and Hong Kong. He studied composition at the Royal Northern College of Music with Anthony Gilbert and privately with Simon Holt. There are trace ...

, a contemporary of Tim Benjamin at the

Royal Northern College of Music The Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) is a conservatoire located in Manchester, England. It is one of four conservatoires associated with the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. In addition to being a centre of music education ...

from 1994 to 1997. Modelled on the 1960s ensemble The Fires of London, (which in turn was derived from the instrumentation of

Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (, ; ; 13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian-American composer, music theorist, teacher, writer, and painter. He is widely considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was as ...

Pierrot Lunaire ''Dreimal sieben Gedichte aus Albert Girauds "Pierrot lunaire"'' ("Three times Seven Poems from Albert Giraud's 'Pierrot lunaire), commonly known simply as ''Pierrot lunaire'', Op. 21 ("Moonstruck Pierrot" or "Pierrot in the Moonlight"), is a me ...

), the core instrumental line-up of Radius is

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

, and

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

. To this instrumentation have been added

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the Standing wave, air column ...

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...

, actors, and vocalists, as required for the performance of specific works. Although Radius is usually unconducted, the ensemble was

conducted Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as an orchestral or choral concert. It has been defined as "the art of directing the simultaneous performance of several players or singers by the use of gesture." The primary duties ...

by John Traill (musician) for performances of Tim Benjamin's ''

The Corley Conspiracy ''The Corley Conspiracy'' is an opera by Tim Benjamin to a libretto by Sean Starke, who also directed. The work premiered on 19 September 2007 in the Purcell Room at the Southbank Centre in London; the orchestral parts were played by the ensemble ...

'' at London's

Southbank Centre Southbank Centre is a complex of artistic venues in London, England, on the South Bank of the River Thames (between Hungerford Bridge and Waterloo Bridge). It comprises three main performance venues (the Royal Festival Hall including the Nat ...

in September 2007, directed by Sean Starke. Radius has performed at the Purcell Room at the Southbank Centre in London, the

Wigmore Hall Wigmore Hall is a concert hall located at 36 Wigmore Street, London. Originally called Bechstein Hall, it specialises in performances of chamber music, early music, vocal music and song recitals. It is widely regarded as one of the world's leadin ...

in London, and the

Holywell Music Room The Holywell Music Room is the city of Oxford's chamber music hall, situated on Holywell Street in the city centre, and is part of Wadham College. It is said to be the oldest purpose-built music room in Europe, and hence Britain's first concer ...

in Oxford.

Performers

Musicians who have performed in Radius: *Violin: Daniel Rowland,

Alexander Sitkovetsky Alexander Sitkovetsky (born 1983) is a British violinist. Biography Family Sitkovetsky was born in Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city ...

, Alexandra Wood *Cello: Oliver Coates *Flute: Jennifer George *Clarinet: Charys Green *Piano: John Reid, Berenika Zakrzewski *Percussion: Adrian Spillett *Trumpet: Huw Morgan *Trombone: Tyler Vahldick *French Horn: Jocelyn Lightfoot *Counter-tenor: Robert Ogden *Actors: Paul Tosio, Jonathan Webb, Angela Myers, Hannah Grainger-Clemson, Alan Bailey, Elise Emmanuelle, Arne Muus

World Premieres

Radius has given the world premieres of the following works: *

: ''underpaintings'' (2005), Wigmore Hall, London, 20 April 2007 * Tim Benjamin: ''Five Bagatelles'' (2006), Wigmore Hall, London, 20 April 2007 *Tim Benjamin / Sean Starke: ''

'' (2007), Southbank Centre, London, 19 September 2007 *Ian Vine: ''X'' (2007), Wigmore Hall, London, 8 January 2008 *Tim Benjamin: ''Three Portraits'' (2007), Wigmore Hall, London, 8 January 2008 *

Laurence Crane Laurence Crane (born 1961 in Oxford) is a composer of contemporary classical music. Career Laurence Crane is closely associated with the ensemble Apartment House, who have given over 40 performances of his works. Some performances they have g ...

: ''Simon 10 Holt 50'' (2007), Wigmore Hall, London, 8 January 2008 † * Anthony Gilbert: ''ecco Eco'' (2007), Wigmore Hall, London, 8 January 2008 † *

Paul Newland Paul Newland is a composer, musician, and founding member of the group out and the electric guitar duo, exquisite corpse (David Arrowsmith/Paul Newland). He studied composition at the Royal Northern College of Music with Anthony Gilbert and vis ...

: ''time quivers'' (2007), Wigmore Hall, London, 8 January 2008 † *

Larry Goves Larry Goves (born 1980 in Cardiff, Wales) is a British composer. A PhD student at the University of Southampton, his tutor is Michael Finnissy. In addition to Undergraduate and Postgraduate studies at the Royal Northern College of Music, he has ...

: ''riviniana'' (2007), Wigmore Hall, London, 8 January 2008 † *Ian Vine: ''fifty objects'' (2007), Wigmore Hall, London, 8 January 2008 † *Tim Benjamin: ''In Memoriam Tape Recorder'' (2007), Wigmore Hall, London, 8 January 2008 *Ian Vine: ''Gesso'' (2008), Southbank Centre, London, 25 May 2008 *Tim Benjamin: ''The Rosenhan Experiment'' (2008), Southbank Centre, London, 25 May 2008 † These works were performed in celebration of the 50th birthday of British composer

Simon Holt Simon Holt (born 21 February 1958) is an English composer. Biography Simon Holt was born in Bolton, Lancashire on 21 February 1958. Educated at Bolton School, Holt immersed himself in organ, piano and visual art during his sixth form years. ...

External links

Official website
{{authority control Contemporary classical music ensembles English classical music groups Chamber music groups London orchestras Musical groups established in 2007 2007 in London 2007 establishments in England