"...this piece was deeply touching, beautiful, emotive, joyful, liberating and bespoke. The work clearly showed a deep level of connection between the composer and participants, demonstrating a symbiotic, creative flow."
Ivors Academy Award Judges on The Umbrella
Liam is a Composer and Creator of Audiovisual Artworks.
He was the recipient of the 2018 Ivors Composer Award in the Community or Educational Project category for The Umbrella, and has had his music performed by ensembles such as the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, National Open Youth Orchestra and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.
Liam’s two-volume composition Backdrops is used to underscore the BBC Radio 3 show Night Tracks, presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch and Hannah Peel, and his orchestral piece A Slow Breath appears as part of the BBC Sounds podcast The Music and Meditation Podcast.
Liam is working towards a Doctoral Degree in Composition at the Royal College of Music in London, supported by an RCM Studentship, and during his time there has studied with William Mival, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Nico Muhly, Catherine Kontz and Gilbert Nouno, amongst others. He is an advocate of the use of creative technology in composition and performance, and is a Resident at Watershed’s Pervasive Media Studio, in Bristol.
"Liam Taylor-West’s Turning Points was an impressively fluent three-minute orchestral workout, with a definite transatlantic twang to its rhythms..."
Andrew Clements for The Guardian 31/01/20
Recent commissions include:
Making Space, performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Anna-Maria Helsing, at Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, London (05/05/22) (First broadcast on BBC Radio 3: 13/05/22)
A Slow Breath, written for the BBC Sounds podcast The Music and Meditation Podcast, recorded by the BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Ben Palmer, at Watford Colosseum (22/02/22)
IN/FINITE, an exhibition featuring four audiovisual artworks created during my time as Artist-in-Residence at University of Bristol School of Maths: Blocking Measures, Forest Fire, Waveforms, Supergolden Approximations. Liberty House, Bristol (19/01/22 - 30/01/22)
Backdrops, Vols. 1&2, written for the BBC Radio 3 evening show Night Tracks, recorded by the BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Lev Parikian, at Watford Colosseum (12/10/20) and Abbey Road Studios (19/09/19)
Unbound, recorded by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Brass Quintet at the CBSO Centre, Birmingham, following the first Covid-19 UK lockdown (18/07/20)
Turning Points, performed by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, at Symphony Hall, Birmingham (30/01/20) (First broadcast on BBC Radio 3: 04/02/20)
Balance, commissioned as part of Digital Catapult's 2018/19 CreativeXR funding scheme, and performed as part of an installation at the Royal College of Music’s Britten Theatre, London (01/10/18)
Day One and The Umbrella, performed by Open Up Music's RPS Music Award-winning National Open Youth Orchestra at Bristol’s We The Curious (09/04/18), Colston Hall (29/09/17), and Bath's Old Theatre Royal as part of BBC Music Day (08/06/17)
for Quartet, written for Trish Clowes' Emulsion Quartet and premiered at the Cheltenham Music Festival (06/07/15)
Emergence, performed by Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Frank Zielhorst, at The Lighthouse, Poole (28/02/2015)
Of Joy, an audio-visual collaboration with filmmaker Rebecca Marshall, commissioned by New Dots, and performed by Ensemble Matisse at King's Place, London (03/11/14)
"Young composer Liam Taylor-West had the difficult assignment of following Beethoven’s joyous ending with a brief four-minute encore, and it’s a tribute to his louche, athletic, brilliantly coloured Turning Points that it didn’t seem at all embarrassed in that august company".
Ivan Hewett for The Telegraph 31/01/20
Alongside his composing, Liam works freelance as Copyist for composers including Eleanor Alberga and Anna Meredith and Assistant Producer for BBC Radio 3 on shows such as In Tune and Record Review