About | Charlotte Bray

“She began composing only eight years ago, when 21 years old, but has already bagged an impressive series of commissions (Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, Verbier among others) and emerged as one of the outstanding composing talents of her generation.”
(The Evening Standard’s 1000 Most Influential Londoners)

Read Charlotte’s blog about this journey here…

Born: May 22nd, 1982
United Kingdom

Biography

The composer Charlotte Bray has emerged as an outstanding talent of her generation. Her music exhibits an uninhibited ambition and desire to communicate and is described as vivid, exhilarating, and richly expressive with a lyrical intensity.

Invisible Cities, commissioned by Verbier Festival and performed by Lawrence Power and Julien Quentin, will première in July. This to be followed by the première of At the Speed of Stillness at the BBC Proms, with Sir Mark Elder conducting the Aldeburgh World Orchestra. Other impending performances include the tenor song cycle Verre de Venise at the West Cork Festival, the piano quartet Replay and soprano cycle Midnight Closes in Soundings at the Austrian Cultural Forum in London, and Bray’s ensemble work Beneath the Dawn Horizon with Southbank Sinfonia.

Born in Britain in 1982, Bray studied with Joe Cutler and graduated from Birmingham Conservatoire with First Class Honours. Then, with Mark Anthony Turnage, she completed her Masters at the Royal College of Music in 2008 gaining a Distinction. She studied at Tanglewood Music Centre in 2008, and in 2011 was made an Honorary Member of Birmingham Conservatoire. She has won numerous prizes, including the RPS composition prize 2010.

During Bray’s residency with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (2009/10), Alexandra Wood premiered her violin concerto Caught in Treetops under Oliver Knussen. The concerto appeared also in Aldeburgh Festival’s closing concert in 2011. Oxford Lieder Festival elected Bray their inaugural Composer-in-Residence in 2011, featuring several performances of her work, including a première by the British baritone Roderick Williams. A highlight of the year was the performance of Scenes from Wonderland by Jennifer Pike and the LPO, a co-commission from the orchestra and London Music Masters.

Other notable achievements include Beyond a Fallen Tree by the LSO (UBS Soundscapes Pioneers commission) under Daniel Harding; Verre de Venise in Aldeburgh, Aix-en-Provence and Verbier (a co-commission from the three festivals) and her soprano cycle Midnight Closes, which has been performed on numerous occasions including Wigmore Hall, Holywell Music Room, Music in the Round and the Purcell Room.