Oxford International Song Festival has announced the appointment of Emily Hazrati as its associate composer from 2024 to 2026. In her new role the London-based composer take on three commissions for the festival, increasing in scope each year, as well as showcasing her existing work during the Festival season.

At this year’s Festival the world premiere of two new songs by Hazrati – setting a text by Joseph Spence inspired by Byron’s Don Juan – was given by soprano Ella Taylor and pianist Jocelyn Freeman. In the 2025 festival (10 – 25 October), Hazrati will create a substantial new song cycle in collaboration with Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh before presenting a large-scale work as her final commission in October 2026.

Hazrati said: ‘Storytelling, narrative and the voice lie at the heart of my creative practice – the opportunity to compose two major song cycles over an extended period feels both exhilarating and invaluable at this stage in my career. I am immensely grateful to Oxford Song for their support and can’t wait to get started on my first commission, in collaboration with writer Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh: a new work inspired by stories and characters from Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh (Book of Kings), the national epic of ancient Persia.’

Established in 2019, the associate composer scheme is a multi-year role forming part of Oxford Song’s Song Futures programme, which commissions new works and promotes the existing work of contemporary composers.Previous associate composers have included Cheryl Frances-Hoad and Alex Ho.

Oxford Song artistic director Sholto Kynoch said: ‘Emily has been on my radar since 2022, when two of our Young Artist duos included her work in their showcase recital programmes. I was immediately struck by her vibrant musical language and clear affinity for song, and am certain she is going to be one of this country’s leading song composers. Her ideas for the two major cycles she will write as part of the Associate Composer scheme are wonderful, as is the fact that she is keen to collaborate with poets to create new texts, and I cannot wait to hear the first of these next October.’