Born in London in 1971, Thomas Adès studied piano at the Guildhall School of Music, and read music at King's College, Cambridge. Between 1993 and 1995 he was Composer in Association with the Hallé Orchestra, which association resulted in The Origin of the Harp (1994), and These Premises Are Alarmed for the opening of the Bridgewater Hall in 1996. Asyla (1997) was a Feeney Trust commission for Sir Simon Rattle and the CBSO, who toured it together, and repeated it at Symphony Hall in August 1998 Rattle's last concert as Music Director of the orchestra. Rattle subsequently programmed Asyla in his opening concert with the Berlin Philharmonic as Music Director in September 2002 - an occasion which was recorded on DVD and broadcast on international television. Asyla has since had nearly 100 performances worldwide.

Adès' first opera, Powder Her Face (commissioned by Almeida Opera for the Cheltenham Festival in 1995), has been performed all round the world, has been televised by Channel Four, and is available on an EMI CD. Most of the composer's music has been recorded by EMI, with whom Adès has an exclusive contract as composer, pianist and conductor. Adès' second opera, The Tempest, was commissioned by the Royal Opera House and was premiered there under the baton of the composer to great critical acclaim in February 2004.

Thomas Adès music has attracted numerous awards and prizes, including the Paris Rostrum for the best piece by a composer under 30 (1994); the 1997 Royal Philharmonic Society Prize for Asyla; the Elise L Stoeger Prize for Arcadiana (New York, 1998); the Salzburg Easter Festival Prize (1999); the Munich Ernst von Siemens Prize for Young Composers (1999); the 2000 Grawemeyer Award for Asyla (the largest international prize for composition, here awarded to the youngest recipient); and the Hindemith Prize (2001). The Asyla EMI CD won a coveted Mercury Music Prize and was the only classical album to be shortlisted for the Mercury Music Prize Record of the Year.