In summer 2026, Hesketh will take up a Guest Artist (composition) position at the Bowdoin International Music Festival, 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 Mélodies grecques, are scheduled to be recorded in autumn 2026 for a planned future release, as part of a programme based on new critical editions.
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.
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.
Hesketh's Hände – Music for Piano was released on November 29, 2024, on the Paladino Music label. The disc showcases a decade-long collaboration between Hesketh and pianist Clare Hammond, encompassing works composed specifically for her, as well as earlier pieces. Described as "a journey through time and sound" the disc "rediscovers the possibilities of the piano on an album where music, life, poetry and visual art merge masterfully".
Hesketh's Uncoiling the River for piano and orchestra received its Irish Premiere on December 6, 2024, at Ulster Hall, Belfast, performed by pianist Clare Hammond with the Ulster Orchestra under conductor Anna Rakitina.
Hesketh has contributed to the production of a new edition of Ravel’s opera L’Enfant et les Sortilèges, collaborating with the Ravel Edition. The revised edition was released in November 2024 and is part of the Ravel Edition's projects for the Ravel 2025 anniversary year.
The editorial panel for this edition includes:
George Benjamin (composer)
Kenneth Hesketh (composer)
Adrien Perruchon (conductor)