Born on the Isle of Bute, Scotland Paul Rissmann is an award-winning composer, presenter and music educationalist. He studied composition and classical saxophone at the Royal Academy of Music, Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. He currently holds the positions of Animateur with the London Symphony Orchestra and Children’s Composer in Residence for Music in the Round.

Frequently commissioned to transform children’s literature into symphonic scores, Paul won a British Composer’s Award in 2012 and was nominated for an Ivor Novello Composer Award in 2020. ABC Classics recorded his musical adventure Stan and Mabel, and his setting of Kobi Yamada’s New York Times bestseller What Do You With An Idea? was recently released online. In July 2023, the London Symphony Orchestra released a recording of his concert suites inspired by Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass.

Paul’s music has been performed by orchestras all over the world, including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Luxembourg Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse.

Passionate about music education, Paul is equally comfortable making music in a primary school or explaining the intricacies of Stravinsky’s motor rhythms to an audience of adults. His work in this field has received awards from both the Royal Philharmonic Society and the Royal Television Society. Paul appeared as creative director in a Channel 4 (UK) documentary Addicts’ Symphony, which explored how music can be therapeutic in overcoming addiction.

Paul creates and performs bespoke orchestral events for people of all ages which range from full-scale orchestral concerts for young listeners to a critically acclaimed series of music discovery concerts for adults called Naked Classics. He has guest presented Classics Unwrapped for BBC Radio Scotland, Inside Music for BBC Radio 3 and dissected the world of opera for Glyndebourne in Behind the Curtain.

Paul has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra with Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia Orchestra, Andris Nelsons and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and toured India with Nicola Benedetti and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.