Thomas Adès

Thomas Adès grew up in London and was still in his twenties when his music began appearing on the programs of major orchestras, a rare thing for a living composer. He works three jobs at once: composer, pianist, and conductor, often performing his own pieces. His opera Powder Her Face, written in his early twenties, caused a stir with its scandalous real-life subject, a duchess ruined by a 1963 divorce case.

His style is hard to pin down, and that is part of the appeal: familiar chords slide in unfamiliar directions, dance rhythms wobble as if heard through water, and the orchestra glitters.

Start with Asyla, the 1997 orchestral piece that made his name, which includes a movement channeling the pounding of a techno club. Then try the Violin Concerto, Concentric Paths, compact and lyrical.