British Violist Paul Beckett has dedicated his career to new music, performing regularly with eminent musicians in the field He was the selected violist of the International Ensemble Modern Academy in Frankfurt 2015-2016. Paul has performed with Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Interface, Sed Contra,Garth Knox and Megumi Kasakawa. He has worked with composers including Beat Furrer, Helmut Lachenmann, Enno Poppe, Harrison Birtwistle, Wolfgang Mitterer, and Hans Abrahamsen. Paul has given recitals throughout Europe, recently in London, Frankfurt, Detmold, Kiev, Warsaw and Basel. A keen champion of contemporary music, he performed with IEMA at the Witten tage fur neue kammermusik, Newcomer concert and featured as a soloist in Hannes Kerschbaumer’s Kritzung on WDR 3.This performance led to a recording at WDR Köln for the upcoming Witten CD production. He regularly collaborates with Ensemble Modern and will join them for premier performances of Steve Reich’s Runner in Paris and Köln. Paul gave the Ukranian premiere of Ligeti Viola Sonata as well as giving a lecture and masterclasses to the string department at the Tchaikovsky National Academy of Music, Kiev. He has performed at numerous new music festivals throughout Europe: Impuls Graz, Klangspuren Festival Schwaz, Cresc biennale Frankfurt, Witten tage fur Neue kammermusik, Gulfstream Festival VII, Kiev and Darmstadt Ferienkurse fur Neue Musik. Paul attended Chethams School of Music, learning with Graham Oppenheimer. Paul continued his studies in Manchester at the Royal Northern College of Music where he completed his Bmus (hons) and his Postgraduate diploma with distinction under the tutelage of Mark Knight. After graduating from the RNCM, Paul studied with Garth Knox focusing on contemporary music. Paul attended Frankfurt Hochschule for Musik for specialised masters in contemporary music.