Based in London; its members are some of the top European soloists in new music. Riot is particularly active in bringing emerging international voices to the British new music scene and since 2012 has given over 200 world and UK premieres by composers from more than thirty countries. Their annual call for scores received over 750 submissions in 2022, and in the past six years has resulted in almost twenty commissions. Additionally, they enjoy close working relationships with some of the most important composers of our time, including Clara Iannotta, Chaya Czernowin, Ann Cleare, and Georg Friedrich Haas whose evening-length piece Solstices was commissioned by Riot. In 2020 the ensemble was awarded the prestigious Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation Ensemble Prize. 

Riot performs regularly at Wigmore Hall and Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival as well as Dark Music Days (Iceland), Tampere Biennale, Nordic Music Days, and November Music, with upcoming appearances scheduled at Darmstadt (Germany), Wien Modern (Austria), Arctic Arts (Norway) and Tzlil Meudcan (Israel). In 2020, the ensemble began a new partnership with King’s Place where they present their ReNEW series, focusing on bringing the most cutting edge international new music to London. They have also recently been appointed ensemble-in-residence at the Royal Academy of Music. 

Their recent release on Huddersfield Contemporary Records, Speak Be Silent, was named one of the ten most important recordings of the year by Alex Ross in The New Yorker. They have also recently released a disc featuring Jonathan Harvey’s Song Offerings, recorded at Deutschlandfunk in Cologne. Riot features regularly on BBC Radio 3 and enjoys radio broadcasts across Europe. 

Their work has been generously supported by Opus 2 International and Arts Council England lottery grants, alongside numerous private sponsors, PRSF, Diaphonique, Ambache Charitable Trust, RVW Trust, Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, and Holst Foundation.