Biography
Aníbal Vidal is a Chilean composer based in London. His compositional practice often engages with tangible symbols—such as verbal language, theatrical gestures, and musical quotations—to explore the relationship between music and the cultural contexts in which it exists. His work creates sound worlds where playfulness, fragility, nostalgia, and the weird can coexist.
This year, Vidal has won the Gaudeamus Award 2026. In 2025, he received an Ivors Classical Award for Best Chamber Ensemble Composition for his trumpet chamber concerto Invocación n.2: A Kintsugi Resurrection. That same year, he received the third edition of the Pisar Prize, awarded by The Juilliard School, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, and Villa Albertine, as part of which he premiered his orchestral work The Language that All Things Speak with Les Siècles at the Parisian theatre, which included a one-month artist residency at Juilliard School in New York with Axiom ensemble.
His compositions have been performed in Europe, America, and Asia, collaborating with different groups such as the Ensemble Intercontemporain, Les Siècles, Britten Sinfonia, City of London Sinfonia, The Carice Singers, Quatuor Bozzini, Mivos Quartet, IEMA-ensemble, Trio Xenakis, MISE-EN Ensemble, Divertimento Ensemble, Cikada Ensemble, Ensemble U, Ensemble Taller Sonoro, Synchronos Ensemble, Musicians’ Initiative Orchestra, Orquesta de Cámara de Valdivia, Ensamble Fractura, and soloists such as Imogen Whitehead, and José Luis Urquieta, among others.
Other distinctions include First Prize at the 20th Joan Guinjoan International Prize, Second Prize at the Matan Givol Composers Competition 2024, the RCM Concerto Competition, the Nief Norf Festival Honourable Mention, the 17th SunRiver Competition Merit Award, and The Robert Anderson Trust Special Award. Commissions include Ensemble Fractales, Trio Xenakis, the DYCE project (in partnership with the European Union), Spitalfields Festival & The Carice Singers (UK), Britten Sinfonia, City of London Sinfonia, Musicians’ Initiative (Singapore), Orquesta de Cámara de Valdivia (Chile), and José Luis Urquieta. Participations include Artist-in-Residence at ECCM (Estonia), Manifeste Academy (France), Time of Music Festival (Finland), impuls Academy (Austria), MISE-EN Festival (USA), Music Panel Festival (Croatia), and Cheltenham Festival (UK).
His music has been broadcast by BBC Radio 3, Maison de la Radio et de la Musique (France), Klassikaraadio (Estonia), and Radio Beethoven (Chile). Vidal has been supported by PRS Foundation Music Creators Open Fund, Vaughan Williams Foundation, Hinrichsen Foundation, Anglo-Chilean Society, RCM Accelerate, the Robert Anderson Trust, the Lennox Hannay Charitable Trust Scholarship, and Ministerio de las Artes y Culturas de Chile. He holds a Master’s Degree in Composition with Distinction and an Artist Diploma in Composition from the Royal College of Music in London. Furthermore, he has received lessons from professors such as Bernhard Lang, Francesco Filidei, Liza Lim, Mark Andre, Lucia Ronchetti, Kenneth Hesketh, among others.