Oscar Bettison was born in St. Helier, Jersey, UK in 1975 of British/Spanish parentage. After studying with Simon Bainbridge at the Royal College of Music and Robert Saxton at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, he went to the Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague, The Netherlands, where he is currently studying with Louis Andriessen. He was awarded a fellowship to attend Tanglewood, Massachusetts in summer 2001.

Successes include winning the 1993/4 Lloyds Bank/BBC Young Composer of the Year award and the 1997 Royal Philharmonic Society prize.

He has received commissions from the New London Orchestra, the Oxford Contemporary Music Festival, The New London Children’s Choir, a BBC commission, and a work for the London Sinfonietta to commemorate their 30th birthday.

Recent projects include a suite of pieces for British group BBQ a new piece for that was performed by the Manson ensemble in England and by Ensemble Royal in Holland and a concerto for Soprano Saxophone and Orchestra to be performed by young Saxophone virtuoso Heiko Geerts in Amsterdam and The Hague in July 2002. A CD that includes a recent piece of his, “Cadence”, has just been released on NMC Records.