So, You Want to Be a Composer!
What does it really take to build a career as a professional composer?
Watch the panel discussion and hear insights from leading figures across the industry.
In this recorded panel discussion from Composition: Wales 2026, leading figures from across the music industry share practical advice and personal insight into the process of building a career in composition, from writing a new work to preparing it for performance, publication, recording, and beyond!
The conversation explores the many stages involved in bringing a piece of music to life, as well as the wider realities of working as a composer today. Topics include collaboration with orchestras and performers, navigating the professional music world, publishing, recording, career development, and the skills composers need beyond the page.
Featuring perspectives from composers, conductors, producers, publishers, orchestral staff, and arts organisations, this discussion offers valuable insight for emerging composers, and anyone interested in the contemporary music landscape.
Panel
George Lee – Head of Artistic Planning and Production for BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales (Chair)
Gavin Higgins – Composer and Composer-in-Association with BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Jac van Steen – Conductor
Antony Smith – Managing Director, Lyrita Nimbus Arts
Ben Hogwood – Naxos Global
Naomi Roberts – Librarian for BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales
Ethan John Davies – Publishing & Research Manager at Tŷ Cerdd
Recorded at the Grace Williams Studio, Hoddinott Hall, during Composition: Wales 2026.
