Aled Start (b. 1988)

Runner-up, Ty Cerdd Young Composer of Wales 2014
Finalist 2012 Daryl Runswick Prize. 
Overall Winner, 2010 Young Composer of Dyfed
Winner, 2009 Trinity College of Music String Quartet Composition Competition 
Age group category winner, 2009 Young Composer of Dyfed

Works have been performed by the Alba Brass Quintet, O Duo, Vardanyan String Quartet, Lunar Saxophone Quartet, Trinity College Early Music Ensemble, Meridian String Quartet, John Richards’ Dirty Electronics Ensemble, The Orion Orchestra, Contemporary Music Group (CMG) at Trinity and several other chamber ensembles.
Aled graduated from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in 2012. He studied / took seminars with Donnacha Dennehy, Lynne Plowman, Paul Barker, Graham Fitkin, Mark Lockheart, Edward Jessen, Heiner Goebbels, Tristan Murail, George Fenton, Michael Finnissy, Christian Wolff and Dominic Murcott. His tutors were Stephen Montague, Errollyn Wallen, Deirdre Gribbin and Gwyn Pritchard.

His past interests were dominated with opera and setting texts to compositions, from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Work Without Hope which received several performances in London, to Leeds poet Julian Turner’s Mynydd Hyddgen for Leeds Lieder Festival 2009.

Starting in 2009, Aled organised several concerts and was bandleader, organiser and composer for The Raw Stories Collective (www.therawstories.co.uk); a new music group blurring scored and improvised compositional techniques comprising 10 musicians including acclaimed violinist Satoko Fukuda, avante garde pianist Pat Thomas and counter tenor Gordon Waterson. The libretto is supplied by American poet Daniel Moore. 

His current interests are pared-down ensemble sizes and working with singers, percussion and string timbres.

Aled has keen and broad interests including travel, philosophy and cycling. He is fluent in English, Welsh and Arabic.


Fitra. 

It is an ancient Arabic word that has no direct English equivalent. Original nature, natural form, our inherent human-ness. It is what newly born babies and young children radiate, and what native peoples still cling to where they can.

We have all but lost it in our techno-cities and our abstract lives. We must recover our Fitra. It is survival necessity.

I am looking for Fitra. 
Music is a key. 
This is my search, my offering.

More thoughts on this topic are at lookingforfitra.com

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