Remain Composed

Cameron Biles-Lidell is a composer based in North Wales. He tells Remain Composed he enjoys writing programme music, often based on landscapes or landmarks, and he also writes absolute music. He says he’s always thinking about evoking mood, image or feelings in his music. Discussing how he gets his ideas flowing, Cameron says he always starts by going for a walk or at least getting out of his hous...

Chloe Knibbs is a composer currently studying for a PhD at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. In her work, she explores ways of being inspired by historical women composers. Chloe tells Remain Composed about writing her 40 minute work Prism for piano and electronics, using material by and telling the story of the French composer Marie Jaëll (1846-1925). Chloe tells us she enjoyed combining humour...

This episode focuses on AI, with Tom Collins , who is an associate professor of music engineering technology at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami. We discuss how AI tools make music, whether they're a threat to human creatives' jobs, the ways Tom has used AI creatively in his music and the challenges facing copyright. Tom also tells us about the Music and AI course he teaches, a...

Sarah Henderson is a composer, soprano and cellist preparing to study an MA in composition at the Royal Academy of Music. Sarah tells Remain Composed about the places she takes inspiration from - ranging from the Bible to a Japanese shopping centre. Discussing process, Sarah says she enjoys the planning stage and playing around with ideas. She says actually committing notes to the page can feel sc...

Philip Stopford is a composer and choral trainer based in Leighton Buzzard. His music has taken him from Truro to New York via Oxford, Canterbury, Belfast and Chester. He gives Remain Composed his thoughts for others looking to build a career in composition. Philip says 99% of his pieces are settings of sacred texts - and with each work he tries to think about what he wants it to achieve or say. H...

Debbie Wiseman has more than 200 film and TV credits. She’s Classic FM’s composer in residence, and last year she won the Ivor Novello Award for outstanding contribution to screen composition. Debbie tells Remain Composed about how the process for writing scores varies between projects such as the BBC series Wolf Hall and Father Brown. She explains how important the relationship is between directo...

Matthew Warren is a composer and researcher. He's currently preparing for the premiere of an opera he's written in Manx Gaelic. He tells Remain Composed it's the first opera that's been written in the language. Matthew says it's been written for a string quartet, singer and dancer, to maximise the opportunities for taking it on tour. Matthew says his favourite part of the compositional process is...

Precious Akindele is a composer, pianist and organist. She’s been studying at the BRIT School, whose alumni include Adele, Amy Winehouse and Jessie J, and will begin studying composition at Trinity Laban in September. She was featured playing her own composition on Channel 4’s The Piano. As a classical composer, Precious tells Remain Composed she’s enjoyed learning from her pop peers at the BRIT S...

Frederick Viner is a composer, pianist and Youtuber based in York. He tells Remain Composed that parameters are his friends when composing, and if a commissioner hasn’t provided any, he quickly works some out for himself. Frederick describes his music as abstract, saying it’s not normally about anything in particular. Frederick says watching videos on YouTube while growing up helped him discover a...

Sally Beamish has written nearly 300 works including concertos, ballets, vocal and chamber music. She says music is how she expresses her emotions. Much of her output focuses on the environment, the sea and other elements. She says that after having a miscarriage in 1994, writing a cello solo contributed to her overcoming her grief. Sally studied the viola, but tells Remain Composed that she's nev...

Gavin Higgins is a composer working with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Three Choirs Festival and many other ensembles and projects. Wind, brass and percussion are central to Gavin’s orchestral music. He says he loves the mix of colours available in orchestras now, and that some composers can be over-timid when orchestrating music for brass. Gavin describes being influenced by his own time p...

Sophie Daniels is a songwriter and an associate professor of songwriting at the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance, where she founded the UK’s first higher education programmes in songwriting. Sophie explains what makes an “almost perfect song”, including the importance of craft and reflecting human experience. She also says everyone can write songs, and the process is often thought of as...

Zygmund de Somogyi is a composer and music journalist. Zygmund describes their music as irreverent and eclectic. They’ve written for chamber ensembles, orchestra, stage, film and much more. Much of Zygmund’s work is composed through collaboration, and is often derived from conversations with performers and others. Zygmund says they tend to focus on writing music for people, rather than just for in...

There's no new episode of Remain Composed today. We'll be back next week. Happy Easter!

Melanie Spanswick is a pianist, author, teacher and composer. She’s a piano faculty member at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Eton College, and she’s a regular contributor to Pianist Magazine. She tells Remain Composed that composition is an activity she’s come to relatively recently. Melanie explains the process that goes into compiling anthologies, such as her ‘Play it again’ series...

Thomas James Owen is in the early days of his compositional career. Thomas has always been curious about how and why music can evoke emotions. Thomas says he’s learnt to not imitate other composers, but he does sometimes aim to generate the feelings he’s felt when listening to certain works. Thomas writes music most days. Normally, while sitting at his keyboard, his fingers come up with the ideas...

Dawn Walters has written vocal settings of all of Shakespeare’s songs, and many of his sonnets. She explains how she discovered her love of Shakespeare - and tells us how that project started and grew. Dawn says her ideas often stem from mental pictures, which she develops by thinking about the text she’s setting. She says the final versions of her pieces are often very different to the initial dr...

David Lowe has composed many of British television's most iconic theme tunes including BBC News, The One Show and Grand Designs. David tells Remain Composed about his beginnings in local radio, and how buying a polyphonic synthesizer would set him up for a career of writing music. David explains the types of conversations he has with TV directors and producers when asked to create music for them....

Crystalla Serghiou composes music in both pop and classical styles, and she also works hard to fuse the genres. She explains how genre-blending is a reflection of her wide interests, all of which stimulate her. When writing pieces for the National Youth Choir, Crystalla has taken inspiration from both her Cypriot upbringing, and her fascination with yodelling. She discusses writing music to suit d...

Jacob Fitzgerald is a composer of contemporary music. A piece Jacob wrote whilst studying music at school has been on the Trinity College London grade 8 piano syllabus. He explains how that came about, where the idea started and the response it’s had online. Jacob discusses the programming of living composers’ music in concerts. Whilst he’s appreciative of opportunities, Jacob says sometimes it ca...

Frankie Archer is an electrofolk artist who blends traditional music with synths and electronics to create a truly distinctive sound. She says she didn’t set out to necessarily create electrofolk music at first, but to bring together her interests. Frankie explains how she comes across tunes and stories to work with and the process she goes through to make them her own, often starting by plucking...

David Lancaster is a composer and associate professor of composition at York St John University. He says while he writes a wide range of music, all of his work is related and each piece is a chip off a bigger block. David constantly has a list of musical ideas queuing up, waiting to be written. He lives in York and he discusses how some of his ideas come from the city’s architecture, not least Yor...

Sharneisha Joyner is a composer based in North Carolina. She explains how she first got into composing for video games, and the difference between writing for games and film. She says starting with a blank sheet of paper can be frightening, but she draws inspiration from listening to a wide range of music as well as day to day life. Sharneisha’s music has also been inspired by political events. Sh...

Paul Mealor is one of the world’s most performed living composers. He’s written music for many national occasions, including King Charles’ coronation. Paul explains how ‘Coronation Kyrie’ came into being, and how he marks the anniversary of the coronation each year. Much of Paul’s output is choral music, and he talks about the challenges of setting text. Paul says some poets speak to him musically...

Anna Appleby is a composer and professor of composition at the Royal Northern College of Music. Explaining her creative process, Anna says music often starts in either her body or voice, or it comes from the environment around her. She explains how the music she hears contributes to her creative output, and the role synesthesia plays in her relationship with sound. Anna’s performer alter-ego is No...