Ben Pease Barton

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Ben Pease Barton (b. 2000) is a British composer based in London, writing primarily for live instrumental and vocal performance. His works have recently premiered at venues including the Barbican Hall, Carnegie Hall, The Place (London), Milton Court, The Courtauld Gallery, Festival Ravel (Basque Country) and the King’s Lynn Festival. His work often draws on the complex human forces that shape, sustain and degrade ancient natural landscapes and ecosystems, influenced by his early upbringing in the ranger’s residence at Hatfield Forest, Essex.

Past projects include works for EXAUDI Vocal Ensemble, the Gildas and Ligeti Quartets, Texas-based line upon line percussion, the Guildhall Symphony and Session Orchestras, the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, and for soloists including clarinettist Heather Roche, pianist William Bracken, violinist Kryštof Kohout, percussionist Simon Limbrick, soprano Manon Ogwen Parry and mezzo-soprano Karima El Demerdasch. Conductors he’s worked with include Jonathan Stockhammer, Sir Antonio Pappano, Jack Sheen, Toby Thatcher and Alphonse Cemin. His recent collaborators from the other arts include writer David Bottomley (HOLME [2025]), choreographer Emma Poyer (Kala [2022]) and writer-soprano Olivia Bell (Fall and Mudlark [2023]).

Ben studied with Julian Anderson, Cassandra Miller and Malcolm Singer at Guildhall School of Music & Drama (BMus, 2022; MComp, 2024), receiving the Jane Manning – Anthony Payne Award (Guildhall’s premier composition prize) and the Tracey Chadwell Memorial Prize for vocal composition. His studies were supported by the Guildhall Scholarship, Leverhulme Arts Scholarship, Henry Wood Trust Scholarship and a Vaughan Williams Bursary. In 2024, he received the Marjorie & Dorothy Whyte Memorial Award for an early-career London-conservatoire graduate. He has participated in courses and masterclasses in the UK and abroad with composers including Michael Jarrell, Tom Coult, Charlotte Bray, Helmut Lachenmann and Ramon Lazkano. He is a 2026-27 Britten Pears Young Artist.

Alongside private teaching in London and Norwich, Ben is the composition lead at Guildhall Young Artists Norwich. He is the initiator and co-director of RESOUNDING, bringing together young composers and performers from across the Guildhall Young Artists network for workshops and performances in London.