He brought cutting-edge classical music to Scottish pubs. Now Matthew Whiteside, the brains behind The Night With… concert series, is raising the bar further with a full-on two-day festival version in Glasgow’s Engine Room, a former West End engineering factory transformed into a multi-functional arts and entertainment venue.

“I admit it’s a bonkers idea,” says the go-getting Irish-born composer/producer/promoter. “It’s either going to be massively successful or fall flat on its face. I still haven’t worked out which!” Going on previous form, the odds are stacked in Whiteside’s favour.

Since coming to Glasgow to complete his masters degree at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the 35-year-old has fashioned a successful business model enabling him to compose, record and market his own music, giving him a guru-like influence over others keen to mould and control their own professional destinies as composers. He’s even written a book on the subject, due out shortly.

Then there are his The Night With… concerts, launched in 2016, which quickly proved that contemporary classical music, when presented in less-formal settings such as pubs and art galleries, would awaken a hungry niche audience whose preference for esoteric modernism was best served up club-style with refreshments on tap. Some 20-plus world premieres have resulted, some specially commissioned, all recorded, and many released via album compilations.

But is this really the time to risk launching a brand new full-blown festival version, given the current precarious state of Scotland’s arts funding? It seems so. Whiteside has secured four key sources of funding, including Creative Scotland, and he’s hell-bent on giving them their money’s worth.

The Engine Room is central to his driving ambition. Over two action-packed days, in a venue with multiple stage spaces, including ample bar space and food outlets, contemporary music fans can move at their own pace between performances – 15 back-to-back concerts including 12 world premieres from top-notch performers, among them the highly-acclaimed Hebrides Ensemble, Paul McAlinden’s Glasgow Barons Orchestra and the multicultural mix of United Strings of Europe. In other words, more Glastonbury than Glyndebourne.

The venue “has a grungy chic to it”, says Whiteside. “It’s also allowed me to programme much larger ensembles than I could accommodate in The Night With… concerts.” That includes the premiere of his own significant new work, Emptiness, for voice and strings, which United Strings perform with “ultra-soprano” Emily Thorner.

The Hebrides Ensemble will be performing at the new The Night With... festival. PIC: Sussie Ahlburg

“If there’s a thread to his programming, it’s what he calls “spectralism” – music that takes the fundamental materials of sound as a springboard to compositional expression. “That’s my kind of sound world, as a composer and listener,” says Whiteside. Hence the inclusion of cult Canadian Claude Vivier’s Zipangu (“the biggest piece in the Festival – a stunner!”), Kaija Saariaho’s Vent Nocturne, and – in Garth Knox’s solo opening programme – Gérard Grisay’s 1976 Prologue (from Les espaces acoustiques) for viola and live electronics.

More familiar composer names include David Fennessey, Caroline Shaw, Stuart MacRae, Helen Grime and seminal American minimalist Terry Riley. At the novelty end, there’s music for magnetic piano. “It’s a weird thing, but really cool,” says Whiteside. “It has 88 guitar e-bows that sit on top of the piano resonating each individual string, and you can crescendo from absolutely nothing with infinite sustain.” Other artists include Ensemble 1604 and the Scots-based Rookh Horn Trio.

Whiteside is also committed to making this an industry event, where composers and contemporary performance specialists interact with movers and shakers from avant-garde hotspots as far afield as Huddersfield and Zagreb. “There will be speed dating events and expert panels to discuss the ins and outs of commissioning, branding and international networking. I’m tying to build an environment where folk are not just coming to hear stonking music, but can develop productive working relationships.”

And the festival’s future? “Regular The Night With… concerts took a battering with Covid,” says Whiteside. “This festival heralds the release from that. If all goes well I’ll build it in, but not every year. We’re not setting ourselves up for a fall.”

The Night With… Festival 2023 runs from 14-15 December at the Engine Works, Glasgow, www.thenightwith.com

Matthew Whiteside on his new The Night With… festival: ‘I admit it’s a bonkers idea’