Toby Anderson

Composer

About Me

Toby Anderson is a composer exploring queer and camp aesthetics through a creative praxis that seeks to explode and reimagine the possibilities of concert music. By focussing on the utopian spatiotemporal poetics of dance music and other queer subcultures, they perfume their music with the disruptive euphoria of the club, thus destabilising the boundedness of the concert hall. Undertaking their undergraduate degree in Music at St Anne’s College, University of Oxford, Toby was awarded a Gibb’s prize for achieving the second-best marks in their year’s Final Honours School. Since graduating, Toby has gone on to enjoy several commissions and premiers from groups such as the Riot Ensemble, the London Sinfonietta, CHROMA Ensemble, and the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra. Upcoming concerts include a premier at Wigmore Hall by the Nash Ensemble and a premier with Duo Intesa at the Royal Academy of Music. At Oxford, Toby took composition lessons with Professor Martyn Harry and was a cellist in the University’s contemporary music ensemble, performing in several world premieres. Before that, Toby took lessons with Hannah Kendall at the Junior Royal Academy of Music and was a composer in residence with the National Youth Orchestra.

Toby Anderson is currently studying with Helen Grime at the Royal Academy of Music and is supported in their studies with a scholarship from the Royal Academy of Music, and with generous funding from the Countess of Munster Musical Trust and the Ralph Vaughan Williams Trust.

Upcoming Events

30/04/2024 at 6.30PM, Angela Burgess Recital Hall (Royal Academy of Music)

Duo Intesa – my new piece ‘Nanospasm’ for two viola da gambas is being performed. TICKETS

02/05/2024 at 8.00PM, Concert Room (Royal Academy of Music)

Into the Rose Garden – curated immersive concert in collaboration with poetess and popstar Jenny Scoones, culminating in a new song cycle sung by Abigail Sinclair. TICKETS

06/07/2024 at some point between 2.00PM and 6.30PM, St Giles Cripplegate

A new piece (title tbd) for guitar and recorder is being performed as part of Classical Pride, A Proud Future. TICKETS

List of Works

2024

God, what have you given me? soprano and piano, c. 24 minutes
- First performed by Abigail Sinclair and Mark Rogers 02/05/2024 in the Concert Room, Royal Academy of Music
Nanospasm, 2 viola da gambas, c. 8 minutes
- First performed by Duo Intesa 30/04/2024 in the Angela Burgess Recital Hall, Royal Academy of Music

2023

I am in training, don’t kiss me, solo guitar, indeterminate length
- First performance 06/02/24 by Georgi Dimitrov in the Angela Burgess Recital Hall, Royal Academy of Music
falling free, fl. hp. vla. vc., c. 6 minutes
- First performance by members of the Nash Ensemble and students at the Royal Academy of Music 26/03/24 at Wigmore Hall
but Mary, SATB choir, c. 3 minutes
- First performance 17/12/23 at St Giles Parish Church, Ashtead
Year of Glad, orchestra, c. 5 minutes
- First performance 05/10/23 by RAM students in the Duke’s Hall, Royal Academy of Music
SATYRS, chamber opera in two acts, c. 130 minutes
- First performance (act 1) 17/01/24 by RAM students in the Susie Sainsbury Theatre, Royal Academy of Music
Schwulenträume, pf. perc. vln. vla. vc., c. 10 minutes
An/throbVssy, soprano and alto renaissance recorders, electronics, c. 7 minute
- First performance 2/5/23 by RAM students in the Angela Burgess Recital Hall, Royal Academy of Music
Pink Narcissus Blooming, 3 voices (SSA) asax. hp. vln. vc. electronics, c. 8 minutes
- First performance 4/5/23 by RAM students in the Angela Burgess Recital Hall, Royal Academy of Music

2022

Ekstasis, fl./picc. cl./bcl. asax. tpt. perc. vc., c. 9 minutes
- First performance 4/5/23 by CHROMA Ensemble in the Angela Burgess Recital Hall, Royal Academy of Music
Song of Myself, actor with vln. vla. vc. cb. pf., c. 10 minutes
- First performance 12/1/23 by RAM students in the Susie Sainsbury Theatre, Royal Academy of Music
touchless : a disco, small orchestra, c. 8 minutes
- First performance 5/5/22 by the Oxford Philharmonic in the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford

2021

Gaol Ise Gaol I, vc. pf., c. 12 minutes
- First performance 6/3/22 in the Holywell Music Room, Oxford
i am the drowned woman, fl./picc. cl. hn. pf. perc. vln. vc. cb. c. 8 minutes
- First performance 16/2/21 in the Denis Arnold Hall, Oxford
Dirty Game, pf., c. 4 minutes
- First performance 15/1/21 in the Denis Arnold Hall, Oxford
His Room, vc., c. 4 minutes

2020

she’s a model […] in Munich, string quartet, c. 15 minutes
- First performance 9/3/21 by the Kreutzer Quartet in the Denis Arnold Hall, Oxford
We Affirm, pf. for short film, 3 minutes 30 seconds
- Short film first showing 10/12/20 in Lancaster House, London
OPULENCE, vla. pf., c. 6 minutes 30 seconds
Cello Sonata, vc. pf., c. 24 minutes

2019

Carried Eternally, small orchestra, c. 9 minutes
Innocently Blue, fl. cl. pf. vln. vc., c. 7 minutes 30 seconds
- First performance 15/4/19 by CHROMA Ensemble in the JdP Music Building, Oxford
Pride, sop. pf., c. 4 minutes
- First performance 19/5/19 in the Mary Ogilvie Lecture Theatre, Oxford
Snowflake, pf. electronics, 4 minutes
Elegie, vla. pf., c. 8 minutes
- First performance 21/2/19 in the JdP Music Building, Oxford

2018

Kitsune, large orchestra, c. 7 minutes
- First performance 5/5/18 in the Duke’s Hall, Royal Academy of Music
Melting, afl. cl. trb. vln. cb., c. 11 minutes
- First performance 4/8/18 in the Turbine Hall, Tate Modern
A perfect Cadence, large orchestra, c. 2 minutes
- First performance 1/8/18 in The Elgar Hall, University of Birmingham
Polite Discourse, bn., c. 5 minutes
- First performance 10/5/18 by John Orford in the Purcell Room, Southbank Centre, London
Streaks, chamber orchestra and electronics, c. 8 minutes
- First performance 11/4/18 in the Clore Ballroom, Royal Festival Hall, London
Questions, rec. c. 7 minutes
Deep Deep Breathing, pf. electronics, 3 minute 20 seconds

2017

Plastered Smiles, SATB, c. 5 minutes
- First performed 10/12/17 in the David Josefowitz Recital Hall, Royal Academy of Music
Blue Fog, string quartet, c. 6 minutes