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. Championed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Aurora Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, and Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, her music has been performed at festivals in Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, Tanglewood, Aix-en-Provence, Verbier and Kuhmo, and with renowned conductors including Marin Alsop, Sir Mark Elder, Sakari Oramo, Oliver Knussen, Jessica Cottis, Daniel Harding, Duncan Ward, and Karina Canellakis.

New commissions during the 2024/25 season include: Mriya for violin and piano, commissioned by Wigmore Hall for Leila Josefowicz; Bray’s first full-scale opera American Mother, commissioned by Theatre Hagen with libretto by Colum McCann; A Sky Too Small for Orchestre de Paris under Klaus Mäkelä, co-commissioned by Festival d​’Aix-en-Provence; and a new work for Ensemble intercontemporain for the inauguration of the Boulez Year celebrations at the Philharmonie de Paris. 

Recent solo and chamber works include The Sun and Her Flowers (2023), commissioned by The Queen Elisabeth Violin Competition, and A Lost Place (2023) for string trio, commissioned by Spannungen Festival. The string quartet Ungrievable Lives (2022) — which was written in response to a new installation by artist Caroline Burraway comprising 13 children’s dresses handmade from discarded refugee lifejackets — has been performed alongside the installation by the Castalian Quartet at venues including the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Wigmore Hall, Konzerthaus Wien, Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. The Earth Cried Out to the Sky (2022) was performed by mezzo-soprano Christina Daletska and pianist Steffen Schleiermacher at Kissinger Sommer Music Festival, while From the Innermost Places (2022), for cellist Anssi Karttunen, featured at Aldeburgh Festival. Crossing Faultlines, a song cycle commissioned by soprano Samantha Crawford and pianist Lana Bode with text by Nicki Jackowska, premiered at Oxford Lieder Festival 2021.

Bray has had a number of orchestral premiere highlights over the recent seasons. A Dark Doorway (2023) was commissioned and performed by Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin conducted by Robin Ticciati; Forsaken (2022) was premiered by Philharmonisches Orchester Hagen and conducted by Joseph Trafton at Stadthalle Hagen; Landmark (2022), for orchestral winds, percussion and basses, was commissioned and premiered by Dresdner Sinfoniker conducted by Jonathan Stockhammer. Other orchestral highlights include the premiere of The Flight of Bitter Water (2022), performed by Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien under Marin Alsop and broadcast on Ö1. The orchestral miniature Where Icebergs Dance Away (2021) was commissioned and premiered by WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln conducted by Cristian Mӑcelaru, and also received a performance at the BBC Proms by BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sakari Oramo. 

L’Orchestre de Chambre de Genève named Bray as composer-in-residence 2023-2026 and will perform several of her works over the 3 years. She visited Kuhmo International Chamber Music Festival and Spannungen Festival as composer-in-residence (2023). In 2019 Bray was awarded an Ivor Novello Award for Invisible Cities. Winner of the Lili Boulanger Prize (2014), Critics’ Circle Award for Exceptional Young Talent (2014), Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize (2010), At the Speed of Stillness featured in the ISCM World Music Days Festival 2017 in Vancouver. Bray was selected as a MacDowell Norton Stevens Fellow (2015-16) and interviewed as part of BBC Radio 3’s Composers’ Room series 2015. She is an Honorary Member of Birmingham Conservatoire, named as their Alumni of the Year 2014 (Excellence in Sport or the Arts), and also listed in The Evening Standard’s Most Influential Londoners (2011). Composer-in-Residence with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group/Sound and Music (2009/10), Oxford Lieder Festival (2011) and Hatfield House Chamber Music Festival (2015), her residencies include MacDowell (2013, 2015), Liguria Study Centre Bogliasco (2013), and Aldeburgh Music (2010, 2015).

Portrait discs of Bray’s music have been recorded on RTF Classical (2018) and NMC Records (2014). Her work also features on several discs including Tecchlers Cello by Guy Johnston (Kings College Cambridge 2017), Oberon Celebrates Shakespeare by the Oberon Trio (Avi-music and SWR 2016) and Upheld by Stillness by the choral ensemble Ora (Harmonia Mundi, released February 2016).

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.