FULL-LENGTH BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE: Piers Hellawell
Piers Hellawell’s work has been commissioned, broadcast and performed in many countries; regular collaborators have included the BBC Proms, the Hilliard Ensemble, Schubert Ensemble, Philharmonia Orchestra, Friction Quartet (San Francisco), Swedish Chamber Orchestra and Stockholm Chamber Brass, with performances at numerous British and overseas festivals.
In 1999 Inside Story was premiered at the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts; the CD of that title appeared in 2002, on the Metronome label, when it was a BBC Music Magazine CD of the Month. The same year Hellawell was featured in a major retrospective at the Kaustinen Chamber Music Festival in Finland. In 2004 Hellawell’s Cors de chasse received its world premiere at the Brighton Festival, given by Håkan Hardenberger, Jonas Bylund and the Philharmonia Orchestra. Meanwhile his set for vocal ensemble, The Hilliard Songbook, which gave rise to the Hilliard Ensemble’s ECM album of that name in 1996, is, in the words of ‘The Independent’, ‘one of the most enduring of their many commissions’. The set was performed across the world by the Hilliard: it opened their 30th Anniversary series in London’s Wigmore Hall and also featured in the ensemble’s very final concert, again at the Wigmore, in 2014.
Hellawell extended his series of concertante works in 2008 with Agricolas, for Robert Plane (clarinet) and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, premiered at the Vale of Glamorgan Festival and described by ‘The Scotsman’ in its premiere recording as a ‘gorgeously impassioned work.....’ followed by Syzygy, a commission for Swedish Chamber Orchestra and Stockholm Kammarbrass premiered in spring 2013, supported by a Leverhulme Fellowship. 2015 saw work on Wild Flow, a major orchestral commission premiered in the 2016 BBC Proms in London - while a PRS Foundation ‘Beyond Borders’ award supported the 2016 collaboration Up By The Roots with Irish poet Sinéad Morrissey and Fidelio Piano Trio, with whom Hellawell has a long association, during a U.K. tour. Other events marking Hellawell’s 60th birthday in 2016 included a residency at the Great Lakes Festival in Detroit USA in June and works at the Cheltenham International Festival in July. Great Lakes Festival was the start of an association with the San Francisco quartet Friction, who have performed Hellawell's two earlier string quartets and commissioned a third, Family Group with Aliens, which they premiered in August 2019 in San Francisco and have recorded in 2025. Other recent major works are Symphonies in Chains, premiered by the Ulster Orchestra in January 2020, and Rapprochement (Concerto for Piano Into Orchestra), written for Clare Hammond, which she premiered in Belfast in 2023. Both were broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Symphonies in Chains being given again in 2024 by the BBC Philharmonic. Hellawell’s latest project is The Rising of Sirius for the Gould Piano Trio and Robert Plane (clarinet), celebrating St Wilfrid’s 1350th anniversary in 2025; it is premiered at the Corbridge festival, in the church founded by the saint, in July 2025.
A Major Individual Award from the Arts Council of NI in 2017 and a Composers Award from the PRS Foundation in 2018 led to release of the disc 'Up by the Roots', Hellawell’s second on the Delphian label, which was among the Sunday Times’ list of CDs Of The Year in 2020. Other works are also represented on the ECM (New Series), NMC and Metier labels as well as on three critically acclaimed discs of his music from the Metronome label, from 1998, 2002 and 2008; 'Tempo' magazine praised Hellawell’s previous recording on Delphian, ‘Airs, Waters’ (2012), for ‘music of great humanity... a first-rate musical imagination.’
Piers Hellawell is Visiting Professor of Composition at St Andrews University; his music is published by Edition Peters (London) Ltd.
STANDARD BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE: Piers Hellawell
iers Hellawell’s work has been commissioned, broadcast and performed in many countries. Large projects since his 1999 Proms debut Inside Story have included Cors de chasse - a double concerto commissioned for Håkan Hardenberger (trumpet) and Jonas Bylund (trombone) by the Philharmonia Orchestra and Dogs and Wolves - a commission for the BBC Scottish SO’s first series in City Halls, premiered in 2006 and recorded on the CD of the same name. Syzygy, for the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and Stockholm Chamber Brass, appeared in Sweden in 2013 - conducted by Paul Watkins.
Hellawell’s works are represented on CD on the ECM New Series, NMC and Metier labels, as well as on three critically acclaimed discs from the Metronome label; May 2012 saw the issue of ‘Airs, Waters’, on the Delphian label; its main work Agricolas was hailed by ‘The Independent’ as ".... a large-scale palette applied with the most delicate of brushwork", and by ‘The Scotsman’ as "gorgeously impassioned work..... a rich kaleidoscope of inspired creativity". A PRS Foundation ‘Beyond Borders’ award led to the 2016 collaboration Up By The Roots with Irish poet Sinéad Morrissey and Fidelio Piano Trio, with whom Hellawell has a long association; this chamber work with live poetry was premiered during a U.K. tour in 2016. Piers Hellawell’s 60th birthday year also featured a new orchestral work Wild Flow at the BBC Proms - a commission for the 50th season of the Ulster Orchestra. Hellawell was featured composer at Detroit’s Great Lakes Festival during 2016, along with performances in Sweden, Finland and Germany as well as around the U.K.; more recent orchestral work includes Symphonies in Chains, premiered by the Ulster Orchestra in 2020, and now Rapprochement, a piano concerto for Clare Hammond. Hellawell’s most recent new work is The Rising of Sirius for the Gould Piano Trio and Robert Plane (clarinet), celebrating St Wilfrid’s 1350th anniversary in 2025; it is premiered at the Corbridge festival, Northumbria in the church founded by the saint, in July 2025.
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SHORT BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE: Piers Hellawell
n.b.: the following are two alternative biog notes, each of 100 words; they are not one item)
Piers Hellawell’s work has been performed around the world by artists such as LSO, Håkan Hardenberger, Philharmonia Orchestra and the Hilliard Ensemble. The Delphian CD ‘Airs, Waters’ in 2012 was hailed as "gorgeously impassioned work..... a rich kaleidoscope of inspired creativity". 2016 saw Wild Flow at the BBC Proms; Wild Flow and the trio Up By The Roots - with poet Sinéad Morrissey - appeared on second Delphian disc, ‘Up By The Roots’, listed among the 2020 Sunday Times CDs of the Year. Clare Hammond premiered Rapprochement – Concerto for Piano into Orchestra in 2023. Hellawell is published by Peters Edition.
Piers Hellawell was born in England and studied at Oxford University, but was appointed when 24 to a composition post at The Queen’s University of Belfast, where, since 2002, he has been Professor of Composition. His family home is in Northern Scotland; his sixty or so published works owe their genesis to that working environment. Working away from England through his career has encouraged Hellawell’s detached attitude to centralized musical fashions; in his teaching and writing about music, as in composition, he advocates traditional training as a platform for individuality, and expresses an aversion to obvious solutions.