212: Composer Julian Anderson

In this episode, composer Julian Anderson discusses his new work Life Cycle, to be premiered by Birmingham Contemporary Music Group in September 2025. Conducted by Stephan Meier, and featuring soprano Anna Dennis, the concert also includes Charlotte Bray’s Reflections in Time and the premiere of Serpentine by Birmingham composer Marcus Rock.

At the heart of this conversation, though, is Anderson’s Life Cycle: eight songs that span English, French, Spanish, German and Gaelic traditions, exploring themes of identity, memory, belonging, life and death. For Julian, it’s both a deeply personal project – shaped by family, friendship, and loss – and a vision of music that travels freely beyond nationality. It’s also a project that began life in an unusually unexpected way.

We also talk about the early encouragement that set him on the path to composing, how musicology sharpened his creativity, and why he believes memory and play sit at the core of everything he writes.

Our conversation was recorded on a hot Bank Holiday Monday in August, at a busy Southbank Centre in London.