I've never started my own thread before.  This is rather exciting.

The first post in the 21st Century Music subject re-raised a favorite stock question of mine (one I ask of all visiting composers/performers here in the little new music concert/lecture series I run):  Who are your favorite young composers?  Who's doing really interesting work?  Who's doing incredibly innovative work?  Who's doing problematic but really promising work? etc., etc.  In part, I find it an interesting question b/c it reveals quite a lot about the interests/priorities/motivations of the recommender.  (In my Music of the Last Decade course, we spent the final two weeks of the term looking at young composers -- I presented a week's worth, and then I had my students present the work of their friends/colleagues.)

Let's limit it to, say, 35 and younger.  On this board we have performers and composers and students and committed listeners ... I'm sure we could come up w/ a really amazing list.

Oh dear. Hate to sound negative but I'm afraid the creativity displayed in the title department certainly doesn't fill me with Christmas cheer.

They'd be the composers' birthdates, John! I have a feeling that if we don't start this thread before there are some composers born this century writing decent stuff we might be waiting a couple of years yet...

(Which, er, on the other hand does sort of highlight that old point about period divisions, no? A bit silly if I have to talk about Barrett's Opening of the Mouth under 20th century but Construction (premiere Liverpool, 2008) under 21st. And what about Dark Matter (1990-2003 according to one website)?

And of course that 20th-century masterpiece Verklärte Nacht from, er, 1899...)

Thing is though, not too many of the composers you mention had actually broken through by then. So perhaps it's not as gloomy as all that.

On the other hand perhaps it is. 

Most of them had already produced some important work, which continues to be valued (Grisey, Murail and Radulescu would do so a couple of years later). If we move the date forward just to around 1970, say (and most of them would still have been 35 or under then), then we have significant works having been written by almost all.

I'll do another list for 1977, if you like (some from the earlier list would warrant being in that list as well).

Let me add to the Ollie's list of "young/youngish composers of enormous potential and established activity whose output is still fairly small but whose direction is hard to predict" (and, yes, t_i_n, most of these names are friends/colleagues, so there's a certain personal bias) ... Robert Wanamaker, Jean-Francois Laporte (who, actually, might be older than 35 now, come to think of it), Marianthi Papalexandri-Alexandri, Sam Mirelman, Evan Johnson (r3ok lurker and occasional poster), Vadim Karassikov, ...

There are plenty of others, but that's a good place to start.

[a good list, with the probable lapse of judgement of including me, snipped]

This is the problem with this sort of thing, although it serves a purpose as a sort of marginal publicity drive; those of us who tend to find value and promise outside of the established promotional channels (esp., perhaps, in the USA, although the grass is always greener...) will of course have to find these composers among our friends and acquaintances.

I would add a couple, though, among my own acquaintances: Oscar Bianchi, who had a truly stunning piece at Royaumont in 2003, and won the Gaudeamus prize in 2005; and Elvio Cipillone (who may also be pushing 35 at this point) who has very interesting Italianiate post-Lachenmann things going on.

I'll name two from my neck-of-the-woods...

Irina BELOVA (just turned 34).  Born and educated Krasnoyarsk, Siberia. Piano and composition lessons with Vsyacheslav "Slava" Ovodov, Krasnoyarsk. Made a member of the Russian Union Of Composers 2001. Composer in Residence at the Krasnoyarsk Drama Theatre for four years. Composer-In-Residence with the Stockholm Sax 4-tet 2002, and at the Goteborg Music Festival 2002 and 2003.  Major works: "Checkmate" (Concerto in 7 movts, for Pno and String Orchestra, premiered at Vremena Goda Music Festival, St Petersburg, 2004 - soloist Ksenia Ovodova); "Tulips" (for Saxophone 4tet and laptop, premiered Goteborg Summer Music, 2006); "Spring Rhapsody" (for Alto Saxophone & String Orchestra, premiered by Vremena Goda Orchestra in Moscow, cond Vlad Bulakhov, saxophone soloist Jurgen Pettersson, obligatto piano Slava Ovodov).  Currently working on an mono-opera commission for Prozrachny-Teatr, Moscow. Awarded the Silver Dove Medal for outstanding achievement in the Arts by the Russian Govt in 2005.

Sergey CHECHETKO (currently aged 31).  Born Yoshkar-Ola, Mari-El Republic, (Volga Region) Russia. (Native language: Mari, bilingual Russian).  Studied piano at Conservatory in Mari-El, graduated in Piano Studies and Composition from Gnessin Academy, Moscow.  Legendarily slept in the doorway of Helikon Opera for three days until given an audition as a repetiteur - sightread "Harawi" and the sex-scene from LADY MACBETH OF MTSENSK at the audition and was accepted in 10 minutes. Initially began composing songs because Helikon Opera soloists asked him for them, and has worked almost exclusively in the song repertoire until now.  Song Cycles include "Hatushka-Makatushka", "The Life Of Insects", and "Tarakany!" ("Cockroaches!" - note for t-p.. "Ехали медведы, на велосипеде..."). Currently involved in a huge project for sprech-stimme notated declaration of poetry to precomposed piano accompaniments.  In 2006 he was signed to a French publisher who is producing all his work to date, plus a commitment to produce piano pieces for Music-School exams in France.  Continues to work as an accompanist and repetiteur.