Alas, it's unlikely, or at least very rare.  In fact, of the names listed so far, I think (though I could be (very) mistaken), the only ones who have been broadcast on Hear & Now have been Andrew Hamilton (a week or two ago), Stuart Macrae, and myself (a year ago), though perhaps Jenny Walshe has also been included at some point. 

Most of these composers, though, have websites w/ sound files ... some have myspace pages ... and, well, I'd venture to guess that every single one of them would happily send you an mp3 or two via email if you asked nicely.

R_T, These two composers from Russia sounds interesting to me. Especially Chechetko sounds very talented.

I don't know how one can attempt to know all these names that people posted. May be over time if one is persistent.
One has to have patience with oneself, go through as time allows.

I've often wondered just what the fascination is with 'young' composers, as opposed to 'new' composers. If there is one institution in the new music world that truly irritates me, it is the composer competition with an (upper) age limit - something that seems to be becoming increasingly popular.

I am supposing that the reason for this is an expectation that composers, like other 'professionals' will pursue a 'conventional' career path, studying composition at a college or university in their late teens/early twenties, then studying for a higher degree in composition while entering a few composer competitions, trying to get some performances and commissions, hoping to bag a publishing deal before they hit thirty and then onwards and upwards until, hopefully, their efforts will be celebrated and admired by performers, listeners and colleagues at their fiftieth birthday retrospective.

I can't help thinking though of all those late-developers who just would not fit into this pattern. Elliot Carter was 35 in 1943. How significant are the works produced by that date to his current reputation? Similarly with Michael Tippett, who was 35 in 1940. And then you have wonderful exceptions to all the usual rules like Minna Keal, who gave up composing at the age of 20 because her life priorities changed, only coming back to it nearly 50 years later to produce a number of interesting and worthwhile compositions.

Again, apart from the 'career path' consideration, perhaps another reason for the focus on 'young' composers is the cult of youth in general, which has been a feature of western society for the past 50 years...

I find it much more useful to think about 'new' composers - those who seem to have something to say whom we have not had a chance to hear from before. This would naturally include 'young' composers, but might also encompass a few wrinkly late-starters, if their music is distinctive and interesting.

So, to broaden the original question, does anyone have any favourite little-known middle-aged (or older) composers that you think we might also want to know about?

   
I'm intrigued by your game, Sydney. Please start it !
[I thought you had already ?]
Chakgogka - tp is right - start a thread about middle-aged composers - new or undiscovered (?). 

Very interesting post from chakgogka, especially on the whole cult of 'youth' that is so prevalent in Western society today, which fuels the cosmetics and fashion industry, using bullying tactics through advertising and the like to try and make people (especially women) feel guilty for not looking younger than they are. I'm going to say something really contentious here, so you have been warned: in this cult of youth, innocence (as opposed to experience and intelligence), fresh-facedness, physical nubility, which can be seen in the whole images created around many musicians, I do detect elements of sublimated pederasty. In the UK in particular, I feel there remains an inability to come to terms with sexuality as an adult phenomenon, so that the iconography of the sexually alluring being is associated with being like a 'boy' or 'girl' rather than man or woman (in France the situation is very different, where sophistication, wisdom, experience seem to be viewed as erotically alluring qualities).

As far as musicians are concerned, Vinko Globokar is another composer who didn't begin until he was in his 30s.

Regarding middle-aged composers who are less well-known, I would advocate Gordon Downie, James Erber, Richard Emsley, Volker Heyn, Robert H.P. Platz, Mark R. Taylor amongst others.

Forgive me for coming late to this, but Spencer's been played on Hear and Now (Toxic Knuckle Bones, 2002) also...

Of course, there is the converse of this, that (very many) young composers have to make do in a world that has "expectations" of them as "young composers".  The composer competition doesn't sound like a terribly fun game to me!