Riot Ensemble

Standard £35 // Solidarity £45.50 // Kirklees £33 // Under 30 £10
Our Solidarity ticket price is an opportunity for audiences to support our work by purchasing a ticket at a slightly higher price (the cost of a Standard ticket plus 30%). Read more about Solidarity prices here.

Advance booking required

Estimated end time: 8.30pm

Riot Ensemble:
Richard Craig flute
Philip Haworth oboe
Oliver Pashley clarinet
Izabela Karolina Musial bassoon
Andy Connington trombone
Sam Wilson percussionist
Adam Swayne piano
Marie Schreer violin
Stephen Upshaw viola
Val Welbanks cello
Marianne Schofield bass
Aaron Holloway-Nahum conductor/sound engineer

Juliet Fraser solo soprano (Haven)
K Sirono librettist (Haven)

Maija Hynninen (Finland, 1977)
new work (2026) 10-15′ UK Premiere

Jonah Haven (USA, 1995)
naomi (2026) 40’ UK Premiere

Riot Ensemble returns to hcmf// with a programme that moves effortlessly between virtuosic contemporary music, theatrical storytelling and surreal comedy, opening with a new work by Finnish composer Maija Hynninen – celebrated for her vivid sonic imagination and close engagement with performers – followed by the UK premiere of naomi, a 40-minute music-theatre work by Jonah Haven for 11 musicians, tape and soprano Juliet Fraser.

While Hynninen’s latest offering approaches the idea of energy in music from multiple perspectives – fragile, densely packed textures standing in tension with eruptive sound masses and allowing energy to circulate not only through volume and motion but through pressure, accumulation, and release – naomi is set in a world where apocalypses are marketed and sold by a multinational corporation and follows a top salesperson whose chance encounter with a talking fox sparks an unexpected search for identity and meaning. With satire and sincerity sitting side by side, it takes aim at consumer culture while asking what’s left when everything – even the end of the world – is for sale.

Renowned for championing ambitious new work and voices yet to be discovered, Riot Ensemble brings together a cast of exceptional musicians for a performance that is at once humorous, unsettling and moving.

Produced by hcmf// supported by Music Finland; also supported by Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation and Hinrichsen Foundation

Maija Hynninen’s new work is co-commissioned by Riot Ensemble and hcmf// with generous support from the Madetoja Foundation

naomi is co-commissioned by Riot Ensemble, Rainy Days, Klangspuren and hcmf//

Photo: Riot Ensemble © Matthew Johnson