‘The huge quantity of incoming cultural information in everyday life, especially by living in a city like London, needs time to be absorbed, 'digested' and generate fresh and fruitful material that can evolve my musical language.

What helps me to forget the struggle in trying to express things with my own way, is just to 'inner-listen' the piece I make as someone from the audience, as if my piece is not mine!’

Haris Kittos was born in 1971. In 1995 he graduated from the Macedonian Conservatoire of Thessaloniki, Greece, obtaining First Class Diplomas in Solo Piano Performance, Harmony, Counterpoint, Fugue and Orchestration, and in 1997 he graduated from the School of Art, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, obtaining BA (Hons) in Fine Art. In 1998 he came to London to study composition at Trinity College of Music at a postgraduate level with Andrew Lovett and Daryl Runswick. In November 2000 he won the First Prize at the Young Greek Composers Workshops, Megaron Music Hall of Athens, and in April 2001, his third String Quartet Achranteia, was performed by the Arditti Quartet after it was selected for the Composer's Workshop, organised by spnm, and the State of the Nation at the Purcell Room. In September 2001 he obtained the MMus in Composition with distinction at the Guildhall School of Music and drama, where he studied with Diana Burrell. At present he is preparing to begin a Doctorate course at the Royal College of Music, under the supervision of Julian Anderson. His music has been featured in various venues in Canada, Cyprus, England, Germany, Greece, Italy and he has been performed by, amongst others, the Arditti Quartet, Corado Canonicci, CoMA, Gareth Davis, London Sinfonietta, L.S.O. Players Quartet, Jane Manning, Sarah Nicolls, Solaris Quartet, Smith Quartet, Aleksander Szram and Nick Veliotis. Haris is also a participant in the London Sinfonietta's Blue Touch Paper Scheme for 2006-2007.

photo: Dai Fujikura