Maddy Chassar Hesketh (b.2005) is a multi-award-winning composer and instrumentalist. Her work uses both electronic sampling and acoustics sounds, and she has been commended for her use of both mediums in her compositional processes. She has had multiple works broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and also had a documentary filmed about her piece ‘simultaneoUS’ in 2023.

Maddy began musical studies aged 4 when she started piano lessons locally in Shropshire. From there, she became increasingly curious about improvisation and composing her own works. She took up the harp aged 8 and started performing in local concerts and venues. Maddy won the Lower Junior Category of the BBC Young Composer Competition in 2019, after submitting her first fully notated score into the competition. She then gained a place at The Purcell School in 2020, under the Music and Dance Scheme to study composition with Daniel Fardon and Gareth Moorecraft. Maddy also began studying at the Royal College of Music Junior Department in 2021, where she was awarded the Humphrey Searle Bursary- an award she has held for her entire time at the College, and also the Joan Weller Prize for Composition in 2023. Maddy won the BBC Young Composers Competition again in 2021, becoming the youngest person to ever win the competition twice. Other awards/nominations include BBC Young Composer 2021- Highly Commended, Double Award Winner in the BBC Young Composer 30-second challenge, a double nomination in the Marvin Hamlisch International Awards, and a highly commended in the St Paul’s Cathedral Choir Competition in 2019. Maddy has received multiple commissions from the BBC Concert Orchestra and has had her work played by members of the Aurora Orchestra, members of the CBSO, The Riot Ensemble, The Echo Vocal Ensemble, The Carducci Quartet, and also by soloists such as Benjamin Hughes, Jane Chapman, Rolf Hind, Colin Alexander and Sarah Dacy.

Her music has been performed in places such as Stonehenge, Hereford Cathedral and Westminster Abbey and also in venues such as BBC Maida Vale Studios, CBSO Centre, Battersea Arts Centre, Watford Colosseum, Royal Academy of Arts, The Royal College of Music and Wigmore Hall, amongst others. She has also had work featured in music festivals,  including at the Huddersfield Saxophone Day, FestivALL at the Royal College of Music and the 2023 Chiltern Arts Festival where her string quartet ‘Timed Exposure’ was premiered by the Carducci Quartet.