The leading, internationally acclaimed, artist Adam Birtwistle has lived in France for the past 25 years and exhibits widely. Best known for a body of portraits which combine a wry humour with a sometimes unsettling view of his subjects, at once stark and playful, idiosyncratic and immediately recognizable. Six are on display at Glyndebourne Opera House, East Sussex, and two are owned by the National Portrait Gallery – one of his father, the composer Sir Harrison Birtwistle, and the other of Elvis Costello. In addition to the NPG’s paintings, notable musician portraits include: pianist Alfred Brendel, Benjamin Britten (1913–1976), Morton Feldman (1926–1987), Hans Werner Henze (1926–2012) and Pierre Boulez.  Art critic Godfrey Barker has described him as ‘...one of our most distinguished portrait painters in what is, presently, a Golden Age of portraiture in Britain’.

"Tippett's importance lies not only in his revitalizing contribution to the genres of symphony, concerto, opera, string quartet and sonata, but also in his awareness – displayed in his writings as well as his compositional practice – of the complexities of the modern condition and the artist’s role in relation to this."  David Clarke in Grove Music Online