Profiles
The rich history of its first ten years of Ensemble 10/10 includes a number of commissioned works and many British premieres.
"Ten out of ten for Orchestra's radicals ... The RLPO's contemporary music offshoot, Ensemble 10/10, have been pioneers of new and daring work that cuts through the safe world of soft classical opinions for ten years"
Northwest Enquirer
"Anyone who arrives at a contemporary music concert at 7.29pm can usually be guaranteed a seat. Hundreds will usually be empty. Not so at the (recent) 10/10 concert where a virtually full hall heard world premières and some playing of exemplary character."
Liverpool Daily Post
"The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic's avant-garde flying squad, Ensemble 10/10."
The Times
2007 alone included twelve world premieres or anniversary commissions, including Sonatinas for Alto Saxophone and Chamber Orchestra by Gary Carpenter and Rose Hobart by Ian Gardiner, who have both recently won a British Composer Award. New works were heard from internationally renowned composers such as Kurt Schwertsik and Olga Neuwirth. Even beyond these, Ensemble 10/10 worked with a distinguished list of British composers, including Kenneth Hesketh, Stephen Pratt and David Horne.
In the 2007-08 season, Ensemble 10/10 celebrated its tenth anniversary and the beginning of Liverpool's year as European Capital of Culture. The last two of its ten anniversary commissions, from Graham Fitkin and Steve Martland, were performed, whilst new commissions for 2008 Capital of Culture Year came from Ian Gardiner, James Wishart, the exciting American Michael Torke, and Mark Simpson, the Liverpool-born 2006 BBC Young Musician of the Year. In addition recent work by Viennese composers Johanna Döderer and Lukas Ligeti contributed to the Phil's Viennese Masters series.
The Phil's Composer in the House (2007-09) Kenneth Hesketh also curated one programme. The Composer in the House system is an initiative of the Royal Philharmonic Society and the PRS Foundation. 10/10's first concert of the 2007-08 season celebrated the ‘handover' of the scheme from Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra with a performance of a work by their composer Stephen McNeff alongside one by Kenneth Hesketh. See Downloads to the right to read Kenneth Hesketh's report on his time as Composer in the House.
While performances continued in the excellent acoustic of The Cornerstone, Liverpool Hope University, in the 2007-08 season Ensemble 10/10 also made its debut in the 480-seat Concert Room in the newly refurbished St George's Hall, the neo-classical jewel in Liverpool's architectural crown.
The Ensemble has recorded a number of CDs, including music by John Casken (2003), and When Worlds Collide (a collaboration with Zappa tribute band The Muffin Men, 2003).