Xenia Pestova Bennett

As a composer, Xenia is represented by the Contemporary Music Centre, Ireland. Her music is available on Diatribe Records, TakuRoku and NMC Recordings. Her portrait album "Atomic Legacies" features Ligeti Quartet and the Magnetic Resonator Piano. Highlighted in Bandcamp's "Best of Contemporary Classical" in 2020, the album was reviewed as "boldly conceived and brilliantly realised... a foretaste of things to come" (Julian Cowley, The Wire), "intoxicating, extraordinarily eerie and evocative” (Bernard Clarke, RTE LyricFM), "melancholy... heart-swells and proper feelings" (Jennifer Lucy Allan, The Quietus) and "a nuclear musical reaction that produces great, irradiated beauty" (Tom Service, BBC Radio 3).

PJ Harvey included Xenia’s piece “Actinium” on the “strengthening and inspiring” listening list of 2025. Xenia was a featured composer in the PRS Foundation New Music Biennial 2025 with her piece “GLOW”, commissioned by the Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble and described as “a shimmering, spooky set of movements woven through with spine-tingling narration about weird light phenomena in Danish, Welsh and Turkish” (The Guardian). In 2026, Xenia was selected as one of four composers for the highly competitive London Symphony Orchestra Soundhub scheme.

Xenia studied piano and composition in New Zealand, the UK, The Netherlands, France and Canada. She holds a Doctorate in Performance from McGill University. Prior to dedicating her energies fully to her freelance career, Xenia spent twelve years in academia as Head of Performance at Bangor University in North Wales, Director of Performance and Associate Professor at the University of Nottingham and visiting Professor of Music at Gresham College, London. Her interest in health and optimal performance led to extensive accredited teacher training in yoga, breathwork and meditation practices. In addition to her performance and composition career, Xenia is in demand as a wellbeing instructor, coach and lecturer. Visit Xenia's wellbeing website to learn about current offerings and her performance anxiety management programme and book, "Befriending Performance Anxiety".

Xenia is a citizen of New Zealand, Canada and Ireland. She divides her time between the beautiful seaside of County Down and the rest of the world.