Summer 2026
Hesketh has recently been commissioned by trombonist Peter Moore to compose a new work for trombone and piano, with a premiere planned for 2027.
A Pageant of Figures and Passing Bells, Hesketh's new work for symphonic wind band, will receive its world premiere on 25 July 2026 in Rio de Janeiro, performed by the WASBE World Youth Wind Orchestra conducted by Tobias Volkmann as part of the 21st WASBE International Conference. The work will subsequently receive its UK and European premiere on 8 August 2026, performed by the National Youth Wind Orchestra under the direction of Matthew George at Stamford School, Lincolnshire.
Between these performances, Hesketh will serve as Guest Artist (Composition) at the Bowdoin International Music Festival (28 July - 2 August 2026), working with participants alongside composers-in-residence Derek Bermel and Andreia Pinto Correia, with activities including workshops and recorded readings of new works.
Hesketh's orchestrations of selected works by Maurice Ravel, including the Sonatine and a sequence of Greek songs incorporating Tripatos (described in the 1938 Ravel memorial issue of La Revue Musicale as a sixth Greek song), are scheduled to be recorded in autumn 2026 for a planned future release as part of a programme based on new critical editions.
Autumn 2025
Hesketh's current project, including a modified 30 note music box and stop-motion animation, is being prepared for a premiere performance at the Music at Oxford series of concerts later in the year. The music box is being designed and prototyped in collaboration with Dr. Luke Muscutt (Imperial College) and stop motion animator Molly Mayhew. The 16-minute work, titled Living Ghosts, is a meditation on the life cycle of childhood, adolescence, loss, and ultimately independence across generations. Through the intertwining of music and stop-motion animation film universal themes of impermanence, memory, conflict, and freedom are explored. The result is a moving visual and aural memory box, its hauntological stimulus influencing the use of live instruments, music box and image.
January 2025
Hesketh's orchestration of Ravel’s Sites auriculaires received its World Premiere on January 25, 2025, at MediaCityUK, Salford, performed by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra under conductor Mark Wigglesworth.