Four new Soundhub Members Announced

We are pleased to announce the four composers who have been appointed to the LSO Soundhub Scheme for 2024/25. Hugo Bell, Sze Ying Chan, Rachael Gibson and Joseph Howard  will each undertake an initial project at St John’s Waterloo on Friday 16 May to explore and develop their practice. Each member will be allocated a mentor to support them as they develop their project, and will have access to support from industry professionals, the Soundhub Community, LSO members and staff. Learn more about each of them below. 

I’m absolutely thrilled to be taking part in this scheme; it’s a really special opportunity for a composer at my stage of development. I like pushing myself and taking creative risks with each new piece, so I’m really looking forward to making the most of the programme’s support – and of course, working with the outstanding musicians of the LSO.

Hugo Bell is a composer, performer and artist based in London. He has worked with groups including Hand Werk, Ensemble Proton Bern, Ensemble TaG, XTRO, Residentie Orkest, New European Ensemble, Britten Sinfonia, Ensemble Oerknal, Decibel, Royal Northern Sinfonia and The Tallis Scholars, and has collaborated with performers including Ere Lievonen and Jacob Lekkerkerker.

His music has been presented across Europe and North America including performances at festivals such as Impuls, Gaudeamus Muziekweek and Cheltenham Music Festival. In 2023, Hugo completed a Masters degree in Composition at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague where his studies were generously supported by the Leverhulme Foundation and The Mendelssohn Scholarship Foundation. 

I am pleasantly surprised and very honored to be accepted as an LSO Soundhub member. I look forward to bringing my project to life and to be inspired by all the beautiful minds in the LSO community.

Sze Ying Chan is a Hong Kong-born composer based in London. 

Sze tells stories through music. Her recent commissions include music for the film White Paper Flower (2021), the multi-media performance Lighting up your family stories (2023), and the sound walk The Divine Plan of the House of Greenwich for the Queen of England (2024) commissioned by the University of Greenwich. Sze’s choral piece  Cumulus (2024) is awarded the first prize in the 10th Japan international choral composition competition. Her works has been performed and broadcasted in Ecuador, Glasgow, Tokyo, Hong Kong and London. 

Sze studied composition for screen at the Royal College of Music and was awarded a BAFTA scholarship in 2018. During her study, her contemporary dance piece  NEKO NO KOI (The Lover Cat) (2019) was premiered in the Britten Theatre as part of the Great Exhibitionist Series. 

I am really grateful for this opportunity and excited to be a Soundhub member! I am really looking forward to meeting the other composers and hearing their new works in concert. I am also looking forward to traveling down to London and working with mentors and the performers over the next year.

Rachael Gibson is a guitarist and composer based in Merseyside. Her practice has become increasingly focused on the exploration of tactile approaches to music-making and engagement. She is particularly interested in how alternative notation practices and technology can be used to musically interrogate the relationship between touch and performance. Rachael is currently undertaking a PhD in Composition at the University of Liverpool, funded by the NWCDTP. Recently, she has been a participant in the Britten Pears Young Artist scheme 23/24 (Composition Alternative Practice and Performance Art), created installation work at the Old Courts Wigan as part of the Wanderscapes Project and was one of the participants in the Yorkshire Sound Women’s Network Sound Pioneers Residency. 

I’m excited to have the opportunity of curating my composition through this scheme. I’m looking forward to hearing what my fellow participants create and seeing how our approaches and results come together.

Joseph Howard writes genre-blurring acoustic, electronic, and dramatic music. His work is inspired by tensions between the digital, the handmade, and the spaces in between. Often taking cues from the visual arts, he regularly collaborates with artists, most recently to create the opera Hey, Maudie with painter Rachel Jones. Joseph’s concert music has been performed across the UK and internationally. His latest commissions have been for the Ryedale Festival, Jess Gillam Ensemble, Andrew Watts (countertenor), and Roman Lytwyniw (violin).