Brass bands and the brass tradition are central to Liverpool-born Lucy Pankhurst who came to music playing tenor horn in Warrington and Cheshire before continuing her studies at the Royal Northern College of Music. Composition came later, but once embarked upon an M Mus with Adam Gorb, she embraced every opportunity to develop her own technique and personal voice. Her works for brass, including Wired (2009) have established her as one of the strongest and most individual new voices to emerge in the genre of works for brass, which she has described as an ‘endangered species’. In common with many composers of her generation, her influences are diverse: folk music is important, as are composers as diverse as Vaughan Williams and Ligeti, through to Stevie Wonder, Radiohead, Muse and E L O.