Anibal Vidal

Anibal is one of eight composers selected for a place on the 2027 RPS Composers programme. This will culminate in him writing a new piece, commissioned by the RPS, for Leeds Song.

On this page, Anibal introduces himself in his own words, and shares links to his music, his website, and his social media platforms. We warmly invite programmers and commissioners to take a closer look at Anibal's work, and please be in touch with us if you would like to connect with him.

About Anibal

'I am a Chilean composer based in London. I like to create pieces where playfulness, fragility, the weird and the eerie can come together. As a composer, I often engage with more ‘tangible’ symbols in music—such as verbal language, theatrical gestures, and musical quotations—to explore the relationship between music and the cultural contexts in which it exists. This allows me to shape a sound world where meaning destabilises and shifts through processes of erosion, repetition and decontextualisation.

In Chile, I trained as a guitarist and worked as a media composer, music producer, and recording studio assistant. I then moved to the UK in 2019 to pursue a Master’s degree in Composition and an Artist Diploma at the Royal College of Music, studying with professors Kenneth Hesketh, Jonathan Cole, and Haris Kittos. I graduated in 2022. Since then, I have collaborated with ensembles across Europe, the Americas and Asia, including Ensemble Intercontemporain, Les Siècles, Britten Sinfonia, City of London Sinfonia, The Carice Singers, Quatuor Bozzini, Mivos Quartet, IEMA Ensemble, Trio Xenakis and MISE-EN Ensemble, as well as soloists such as trumpeter Imogen Whitehead and oboist José Luis Urquieta.'

Highlights

  • Anibal won the 2026 Gaudeamus Award, comprising a commission for the Gaudeamus Festival in Utrecht, Netherlands.
  • Anibal’s work for trumpet and ensemble, Invocación n.2: A Kintsugi Resurrection, received the Ivor Novello Classical Award for Best Ensemble Composition in 2025.
  • Theatre of Origins for 16 singers, commissioned by The Carice Singers and Spitalfields Music, was first performed in 2025.
  • He was awarded the 2024 Pisar Prize presented by Juilliard in partnership with Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and Villa Albertine. As part of the prize, he workshopped a new piece, The Language that All Things Speak, during a residency in New York, which was then given its first performance by Les Siècles at Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris.

Find out more

If you are interested in finding out more about Anibal, hearing and and keeping up to date with his work, take a look at his website and social media below:

The RPS Composers programme could not happen without the support of RPS Members, PRS Foundation Talent Development Network supported by PPL, Delius Trust, Fidelio Charitable Trust, Garrick Charitable Trust, Idlewild Trust, John Ellerman Foundation, Marchus Trust, Presteigne Festival, RPS Susan Bradshaw Composers' Fund, Vaughan Williams Foundation, WildKat, and several anonymous donors.