Amelia Clarkson
Key Facts
- Instrument: Composer
- Website: www.ameliaclarkson.com
Biography
Amelia (b. 1995) is a composer from Northern Ireland who creates music which navigates potent political issues, juxtaposing folk and classical influences in her approach. She is a current PRS Foundation Women Make Music grantee and her creative practice is supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.
Amelia was the 2021 recipient of the National Concert Hall and Sounding the Feminists Mid-Career/Emerging Commissioning Award, for which she has recently finished I AM LEDA, which will form a non-verbal retaliation to Yeats’s ‘Leda and the Swan’. Recent performances include Sisterhive by Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble, She Lingers at London Guitar Festival and Cardiff Guitar Festival, and Through His Gaze at the 2020 Presteigne Festival by Bradley Smith and Oliver Wass. Upcoming performances include the premieres of A Picture on the Wall commissioned by the Central Band of the Royal Air Force and Blowing Through, commissioned by Crash Ensemble.
Amelia is currently developing a second ballet, White Doves, with choreographer Ruaidhrí Maguire, (supported by PRS Foundation WMM and ACNI) which is a reflection on peace and identity in Northern Ireland from the perspective of the post-Troubles generation. This follows their 2019 ballet, Dear Frances.
Amelia is a PhD candidate at the Royal Northern College of Music, composing new music for dance which aims to challenge audience perceptions of sexual consent, supervised by Laura Bowler and Gary Carpenter. She is grateful for funding from the RNCM which makes her doctoral studies possible. Prior, she received her Bachelor’s of Music with first class honours from Cardiff University and before completing her Master’s with distinction at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in 2019, under Deirdre Gribbin, John Ashton Thomas, Errollyn Wallen MBE and Edward Jessen as a Trinity College London Scholar and supported by the RVW Trust.
Musicians’ Company Award: 2018 Silver Medal – Trinity Laban Conservatoire
Page Updated: Sept 2019
Photo Credit: Sarah Court