Mr Layfield was appointed head of strings at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) in 2002.

BBC: Chethams School of Music

Malcolm Layfield resigned from his position as head of strings at the Royal Northern College of Music after allegations that he had relationships with students made his position "untenable".

BBC: Chethams School of Music

At the heart of Arnalds' music is a simple interplay between spare strings and piano lines.

NPR: Olafur Arnalds: 'Vid Vorum Sma'

Aided by strings and light percussion, this is transcendental chamber music that divebombs into the sublime as much as it reaches the heavens.

NPR: First Listen: James Blackshaw, 'All Is Falling'

Glass varies the music by contrasting fast notes played by low strings with longer notes for higher strings and then complements each with a shifting bass line.

NPR: Oscar-Nominated Scores: 'Notes On a Scandal'

The college will also host the five classical music category finals for brass, keyboard, percussion, strings and woodwind.

BBC: Young Musician 2014 launches new Jazz Award

With its muted brass and ominous strings, it's an ode to regret and a rebuke of the music of the 1960s gaudy spy thrillers.

WSJ: Who Will Win the Oscar for Best Score? | By Jim Fusilli

On Oh When the Wind Comes Down, Hamman's visions of folk music are realized with rich imagery and entrancing instrumentation, as he crafts vivid storylines and long strings of compelling narration.

NPR: Run On Sentence: A Lumbering Stroll

"This middle section came out of Derek's statement about the strings, " he said as he pointed out measures in which deconstructed polyrhythms drawn from Afro-Cuban music are scored for violins, violas and cellos.

WSJ: Where Classical Music and Jazz Collaborate | By Larry Blumenfeld