Esther Bersweden

– Huw Watkins, Composer and Pianist

Esther is a British composer whose interest lies in making new music accessible, meaningful and enjoyable for performers and audiences alike.

Esther particularly loves writing choral music and recent commissions include St Martin’s Voices, Multitude of Voyces, St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol Bach Choir, RSCM, Redland Green Choir, Eltham Choral Society, Thames Chamber Choir and the City of Bristol Choir. She has also had her compositions sung by other choirs in cathedrals, parish churches and schools around the country, including in a service of Choral Evensong at St Martin-in-the-Fields which was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3, and in the 2025 Easter Sunday service broadcast live on BBC 1 from St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol. Her music is published with OUP, RSCM and Encore Publications and recorded on Resonus Classics and NMC Recordings.

Esther is one of four composers in the National Youth Choir Emerging Professional Artists cohort 2025/26. In 2024 she took up the post of Director of Music at St Barnabas Church in Oxford, and prior to that she was the Composer in Residence at Redmaids’ High School in Bristol. In 2021, Esther received a Distinction in a Music MA specialising in Composition at the University of Bristol.

Esther was involved in the musical life of St Paul’s, Clifton for nine years, where she held the Organ Scholarship as an undergraduate, and during which time she discovered a love of conducting.