2026 Festival composer-in-residence Michael Zev Gordon discusses his life, career and music with conductor, singer and composer George Parris. Gordon’s music has been described as having ‘a clockmaker’s craftsmanship [which] somehow coincides with romantic phantasmagoria’ (Sunday Times). A broad range of influences – including his teachers Holloway, Goehr, Knussen, Donatoni, Andriessen and Woolrich – have coalesced into a colourful, individual voice, in which the contemporary and traditional subtly rub shoulders; memory, time and a search for serenity have been recurring subjects. He is currently Professor of Composition at the University of Birmingham.
