“all the important Bs: Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Britten, plus another: Charlotte Bray”
The Times
“Bray’s rapid rise is due to an unusual combination of remarkable fluency, an absolutely sure ear and an ability to fix an emotional tone in a few sharply outlined gestures”
(Ivan Hewett, The Proms 2021)
British composer Charlotte Bray is one of the most esteemed and in-demand composers of her generation. Exhibiting uninhibited ambition and desire to communicate, her music is exhilarating, inherently vivid, and richly expressive with lyrical intensity. Recent premieres include Ungrievable Lives (2021/22), performed by the Castalian String Quartet at the Elbphilharmonie, Wigmore Hall, Konzerthaus Wien, Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. Orchestral highlights include Forsaken (2022), premiered by Philharmonisches Orchester Hagen (Joseph Trafton); Landmark (2022), for orchestral winds, percussion and basses, premiered by Dresdner Sinfoniker (Jonathan Stockhammer); The Flight of Bitter Water (2022), conducted by Marin Alsop and performed by Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien; and Where Icebergs Dance Away (2021), commissioned by WDR Sinfonieorchester (Cristian Măcelaru), receiving its’ UK premiere at the BBC Proms under Sakari Oramo.
Originally from High Wycombe, Bray (b.1982) graduated from Birmingham Conservatoire with First Class Honours, having studied composition with Joe Cutler, and then completed a Masters in Composition with Distinction from the Royal College of Music in London studying with Mark-Anthony Turnage. She went on to participate in the Britten-Pears Contemporary Composition Course with Oliver Knussen, Colin Matthews and Magnus Lindberg and studied at Tanglewood Music Centre with John Harbison, Michael Gandolfi, Shulamit Ran and Augusta Read-Thomas. Her music is published by Birdsong. She lives in Berlin.