Raphael Cendo was born in 1975, studied piano and composition, first at Paris Ecole Normale de Musique, then at Conservatoire National Supérieur and completed the program for composition and electronic music at IRCAM in 2006. He studied composition with Allain Gaussin, Brian Ferneyhough, Fausto Romitelli and Philippe Manoury. Raphaël Cendo has written compositions for internationally renowned ensembles such as L’Itinéraire, the National Orchestra of Île de France, Ensembe Intercontemporain and Ensemble Modern.

Many of his compositions have been played at important festivals such as Mito Festival in Milano, Biennale di Venezia, Radio France – Montpellier Festival, Voix Nouvelles Festival in Royaumont, Ars Musica in Brussels, Musica in Strasbourg, Why Note in Dijon, Donaueschingen and the Darmstadt Summer Course.

In 2007 Raphaël Cendo was awarded the Prix Espoir of the Francis and Mica Salabert Foundation of for Orchestre Symphonique du Montréal. Since 2008 he teaches composition at Conservatoire de Nanterre. From 2009 to 2011 Raphaël Cendo was resident at the Académie de France in Rome (Villa Médici), received the Prix Hervé Dugardin of Sacem in 2011 and the Prix Pierre Cardin in 2013.
After 2012 Raphaël Cendo will be composition tutor in Darmstadt for the second time.

Born in Milan from a swiss family, completed degrees in composition, choir conducting and electronic music at the Giuseppe Verdi conservatory of Milan. He pursued studies in composition taking part in master programs such as at IRCAM – Centre Pompidou and with a doctoral degree at Columbia University in New York. Commissioned by the Aix-en-Provence Festival and Théâtre & Musique, his first opera, Thanks to My Eyes, libretto and direction by Joël Pommerat, received critical acclaim by audiences and critics alike. His music has been performed by outstanding ensembles and orchestras such as Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Deutsche Symphonie Orchester, Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, Ensemble Modern, Klangforum Wien, Collegium Novum Zürich, Ensemble Contrechamps Geneve, Phoenix Ensemble Basel, Ensemble Laboratorium, JACK quartet, Les Percussions de Strasbourg, Ictus, Quatuor Diotima, Ensemble Remix, Nieuw Ensemble, Ensemble l’Itineraire, International Contemporary Ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, David Grimal, Kammerensemble für neue Musik Berlin, Drumming Grupo de Percussão from Porto, Osterreichiches Ensemble für neue Musik, Sound’arte. Upcoming projects include new works for Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, Oper Theatre Basel, The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Modern, Jack, Diotima, Joël Pommerat, Maud Le Pladec. In 2013 his CD Portrait won the German Record Critics’ Award and a recording of his cantata MATRA has been just released under the label Cypres.

Andrew Toovey was born in London in 1962, and studied composition with Jonathan Harvey, Michael Finnissy and briefly with Morton Feldman. He has won a series of prestigious composition prizes including the Tippett Prize, Terra Nova Prize, the Bernard Shore Viola Composition Award and an RVW Trust Award.

Toovey has been the artistic director of the new music ensemble IXION since 1987 and was composer-in-residence at the Banff Centre, Canada for four successive years. He has worked extensively on education projects for Glyndebourne Opera, English National Opera, Huddersfield Festival, the South Bank Centre and the London Festival Orchestra, and has been composer-in-residence at Opera Factory and the South Bank Summer School.

Toovey’s work embraces a huge diversity of influences, from musical extremes such as Feldman and Finnissy, or the poetry of Artaud, Cummings and Rilke, to a passion for 20th century art. Recent Toovey commissions have included Music for the Painter Jack Smith (Brighton Festival), Dutch Dykes (De Ereprijs), Self portrait as a Tiger! (Ensemble Reconsil Wein) and Going home (BBC for the Szymanowski String Quartet). He has recently been commissioned by the BBC to write a viola concerto for the William Primrose festival in Scotland (2004), an orchestral suite based on music from his first opera UBU and a large orchestral work.

Since 1982 he has written over 100 pieces for orchestra, large ensemble, chamber groups and many solo instruments as well as opera. Recent works include Verboten, Holding You and Euonia (a self-contained group of ensemble pieces), First Out, Preludes and Schrott, all for solo piano, the sequence ‘The way it is now’ for voice and viola, Contrecto for harmonium and tabla (there is also a version for violin and harmonium) and Pump Triptych for solo clarinet. He has just completed a chamber opera based on James Purdy’s novel Narrow Rooms to a libretto by Michael Finnissy.