Dr Toby Young is a Professor of Composition at Guildhall School of Music & Drama, and Director of the UKRI-funded 'Immersive Opera' project. In addition to his role as the Music Supervisor of Punchdrunk, Toby has written soundtracks to a variety of TV and stage works including BAFTA-nominated productions for HBO and Sky Arts. As a producer he has created recordings for some of the country’s foremost ensembles and artists and was a creative lead with the Philharmonia Orchestra’s ‘Audience of the Future’ project to create operatic and orchestral experiences in 360º video and site-specific audio.

"With opera continually having to fight for survival – amidst cries of elitism and anxiety over perceived lack of relevance and high expense – we as educators need to prepare our students to be flexible and innovative in how they make work. As I begin a major research project in immersive opera, I’m interested in how new technologies and digital storytelling can form part of operatic pedagogy, and how these approaches might enhance (or possibly compete with) more traditional forms of new operatic creation."