Described by the BBC as “…one of the 21st century’s most compelling musical dramatists”, Iain Bell’s music has been thrilling audiences in the world’s most prestigious concert halls and opera houses. Since the highly acclaimed world premiere of his first opera ‘A Harlot’s Progress’ at Vienna’s Theater an der Wien, his subsequent operas have been staged at houses including the Royal Opera House, Houston Grand Opera, Welsh National Opera, Trentino’s Teatro Sociale, English National Opera, New York City Opera and Mexico City’s Teatro de la Ciudad. This culminated in a 2022 gala at Prague’s Smetana Hall featuring excerpts from several of these works, where soprano Diana Damrau reprised the title role in ‘A Harlot’s Progress’.

Song is another cornerstone of Bell’s output and recent highlights have included Mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton’s world premiere of his ee cummings cycle ‘of you’ at Carnegie Hall, and a commission from the Salzburg Mozarteum to set selections from Whitman’s ‘Leaves of Grass’ for bass-baritone Douglas Williams.

In 2022, tenor Rolando Villazón performed the composer’s setting of Shakespeare’s ‘Come Away Death’ at the Philharmonie Luxembourg, then toured his cycle of Nahuatl poetry throughout Europe. Bell’s ’Beowulf’, for the BBC Symphony & Chorus and tenor Stuart Skelton premiered thereafter at London’s Barbican with actress Ruth Wilson as narrator. Other recent highlights include ‘Aurora’ – his concerto for coloratura soprano at the BBC Proms, and a performance ‘The Hidden Place’ at the Enescu Festival by the LSO, led by Gianandrea Noseda.

2023|24 sees the world premiere of his orchestral suite ’Stonewall ’69’, new productions of ‘Comfort Starving’, ‘The Man With Night Sweats’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’, along with brand new song cycles for both the New York Festival of Song and Brooklyn Art Song Society, and further ahead brings the completion of his queer trilogy Laid Bare.