Composer of the Month

Ashley John Long

Ashley John Long enjoys a fulfilling career as a musician, composer and teacher across an impressively broad span of genres. His work as a performer sees him playing the double bass alongside jazz musicians, free improvisors and contemporary classical ensembles, while is educational work includes lecturing in musicology, composition and performance at Cardiff University School of Music.

As a composer, Ash has built a reputation as the writer of imaginative scores that combine delicate detail and freedom of expression, united by an overarching melodic structure. His output is diverse, taking in works for symphony orchestra, chamber forces and theatrical productions as well as music for electro-acoustic ensembles and improvisatory groups.

Ash's music has been performed by leading ensembles including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, UPROAR, Trio Anima and the Lunar Saxophone Quartet at major tours and festivals. In June 2025 Long's Beyond the Haze of Winter's Edge represented Wales at the International Society of Contemporary Music's World New Music Day's in Lisbon.

We asked Ash to tell us a little about his life and career and the influences which have helped shape his music.

I was born in Griffithstown, near Pontypool and although my family weren't musical per se, they were always listing to a lot of things so I grew up surrounded by a wide variety of music. I remember a harpist coming into school one day and I fell in love with the sound of it and went home and asked if I could start having piano lessons.

Early on, I was writing little pieces and always thought that if you played music, then you also wrote it as a matter of course – no one really ever told me otherwise. A little later on, my teachers suggested I learn another instrument so I could do a bit more ensemble playing. There was no bass player at the school at the time so they suggested the double bass. I instantly found the instrument fascinating and has been a constant companion since.

My interest in contemporary music really began in my late teens hearing a Radio 3 broadcast of (I think) a Harrison Birtwistle piece – I'd also recently been to a BBC NOW concert where they played a piece by Takemitsu and was blown away by the delicacy of that – I'd never heard anything quite like it in terms of its use of space and colour. I had also begun to explore some things at school (I also remember going to see a performance of Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire which we must have been studying at the time) and my music teachers were very knowledgeable about a wide range of music and gave me some very good pointers. (I'd been playing double bass for a while at this stage and was involved with various youth orchestras and jazz bands as well as composing.)

One piece I distinctly remember making an enormous impression was Penderecki's Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima – I was absolutely stunned by its visceral soundscape but also by the amazing visual qualities of the score which I'd found in the school library. I'd not seen or heard anything quite like it and really began to get into the maze of contemporary music alongside my ongoing interest in rock/metal and jazz.

FIVE KEY WORKS

▶ Hevelspending (movement III)

The Lunar Saxophone Quartet were early supporters, commissioning and recording two pieces from me – this is the second of these.

▶ Karri

Rob Fokkens encouraged me to return to composing after a period away. Written for BBC NOW's Composition: Wales scheme, this was my first major work after this impasse.

▶ Lunea

This was a really fun experience. Not only was it wonderful having a mentor as insightful as Sir James MacMillan, but the ability of the musicians was breath taking.

▶ Somewhere Becoming Rain

This is an example of being able to write really detailed, expressive music for exceptional performers [Trio Anima]. Matthew Featherstone [flute] and I first collaborated over lockdown and have continued to do so since.

▶ Beyond the Haze of Winter's Edge

Representing Wales at this year's ISCM festival was an amazing experience. Firstly, it is wonderful to have time with a group of people who share your interests and you get to see the breadth of innovation that is going on in the world of contemporary music. I was also amazed by the standard of playing this year – every concert I went to see was simply astounding with fantastic performers totally committed to the music. The performance of my piece was no exception and I will be forever grateful to the Sond'Ar-te Trio for such a nuanced, sensitive reading.

Later, when I was at college [Ash attended the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama as an undergraduate] I was studying jazz alongside classical bass with Dominic Seldis and composition with Tim Raymond and Peter Reynolds. Far from seeing the boundaries between different forms of music making, I was drawn to the commonalities that linked them so I began to get heavily involved in the musical situations that have formed the basis of my career since, namely contemporary music (solo and ensemble), improvisation, jazz, and session work.

I met Keith Tippett at this time who was responsible for introducing me to the world of free improvisation and sparking my interest in new techniques – I also began to explore these in my classical studies and Dominic was very patient in helping me work on pieces that were really operating at the expressive boundaries of the instrument and helped me to assimilate these techniques into my ongoing technical and musical development.

Tim and Peter were also very encouraging and introduced me to a lot of new music as well a lot of the aesthetic arguments that surround them so I began to get more of a holistic grounding in the medium and I just found the whole world fascinating. They were also fantastic teachers who really helped me develop my technique as a composer and encouraged me to keep exploring new sound worlds and integrate them into my existing practice.

I've continued on this path since and I've been fortunate to work with a huge range of really amazing musicians who have really pushed me to keep growing and developing my craft across all of these genres. All of these experiences also feed into my teaching and research, and I've been lucky over the past few years of being at Cardiff to have worked with some really talented young musicians. I've also done a lot of outreach work with organisations such as Arts Active, going into schools and working collaboratively with children to create works that they will eventually perform themselves.

The music I write is essentially a distillation of facets of these situations. I'm intensely interested in the expressive capabilities of instruments (and voices) but also the employ of subtle timbres and textures and the ways these all fit together for an essentially expressive purpose. As such, my work often makes quite significant demands on performers, but always with a clear musical objective, never for effect, and I've always been lucky in having access to exceptional performers who have shown an interest in my work and supported it throughout my career. I had actually stopped composing for a while, partly due to being so busy with performance but also because I'd reached a bit of an impasse in terms of what I wanted to develop. My PhD supervisor Rob Fokkens had happened across a recording of Hevelspending and encouraged me to start writing again. The result of this was Karri, which I entered for BBC NOW's Composition: Wales.

Ashley pursues a busy freelance career as a jazz and classical double bass player.

Somewhere Becoming Rain, Ashley's piece for flute, viola and harp was recorded on Tŷ Cerdd Records by Trio Anima.

▶ ashleyjohnlong.co.uk

▶ Composer of the Month