‘I’m drawn towards the kind of sounds or stylistic mannerisms that many people choose to leave out of their work, the clumsy, lost, or forgotten ones .... virtually anything can find its way into the pieces .... music for me is a displaying of life, a celebration of living.’’

Richard Ayres was born in Cornwall in 1965 and studied composition and trombone at Huddersfield Polytechnic. Since September 1989 he has lived and worked in the Netherlands. He followed the postgraduate composition course at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, studying with Louis Andriessen, graduating in 1992. In 1994 he was awarded the International Gaudeamus prize for composition. In 1999 his piece No.31 (for trumpet and ensemble) received a "recommendation" at the Unesco Rostrum of Composers in Paris. He was appointed as teacher of composition at the Royal Conservatoire in Den Haag in January 2004.

From 1990 Richard Ayres has worked as a composer, receiving performances from many of the leading Dutch and European ensembles such as the ASKO Ensemble, Schönberg Ensemble, Ives Ensemble, Orkest de Volharding, the Maarten Altena Ensemble, Apartment House, Klangforum Wien, MusikFabrik and London Sinfonietta, as well as writing for ensembles with more unusual instrumentations formed for specific projects.

He was a featured composer at the 2001 Aldeburgh Festival during which a new work for orchestra was premiered by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Sakari Oramo.

Future commissions include an opera for the 2005 Aldeburgh Festival/Almeida opera/Bonn opera, a NONcerto for Oboe for Bart Schneemann to be premiered in the Concertgebouw in 2006, and a large work for the 2006 Donaueschinger Musiktage.

Sample audio files:
Real Media Player requiredNo.24

’Richard Ayres sweeps all that modernistic nonsense from the table: he gives us clarity and intelligibility. Nothing is serious, everything is playful and life is a feast. ’

Paul Janssen, Het Parool