Freya Waley-Cohen

British-American composer Freya Waley-Cohen has an “instinct for colour” (The Arts Desk), writing music that can move from “a bubbling, popping, feathered array of orchestral sounds” to a “quiet, eerie, interior world” (The Guardian).

Waley-Cohen has been commissioned by institutions and ensembles including Los Angeles Philharmonic, BBC Proms, Wigmore Hall, Philharmonia Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, The King’s Singers and The Hermes Experiment, as well as the Aldeburgh, Presteigne, Santa Fe, and Cheltenham festivals. Her music has been released on Signum, Nimbus, Nonclassical, Delphian and NMC records.

In the 2022/23 season, Waley-Cohen’s orchestral work Demon, commissioned by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, was premiered on 22 February 2023 at Birmingham Symphony Hall, performed by the CBSO under the baton of Ilan Volkov. Her work for string orchestra and solo recorder player, Variation on Sellinger’s Round, was commissioned and premiered by the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, led by Daniel Bard with soloist Lucie Horsch, in a series of concerts touring the Netherlands 10 – 17 February.

Waley-Cohen’s first opera, WITCH, was commissioned to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Royal Academy of Music and premiered in 2022. It was directed by Polly Graham and conducted by Ryan Wigglesworth, and has been nominated for an Ivors Composer Award. 

Freya was Composer in Residence with the London Chamber Orchestra for the 2021-22 season, including a new work commissioned for the orchestra and conducted by Pekka Kuusisto. She was also the 2019-20 Associate Composer of the Wigmore Hall, where the 2019 season featured a day of concerts focusing on her music and the commissioning of two new chamber works. She was associate composer contemporary music series, Nightmusic at St David’s Hall, from 2018-2021.

Freya has created a number of immersive works and installations including Permutations, an interactive artwork and a synthesis of architecture and music which was created and premiered at Snape Maltings before touring the UK and being released as an EP on Signum Records. She was a founding member and artistic director of Listenpony concert series and record label which commissioned over 50 composers from 2012-2022. 

Highlights of the 2023/24 season include a concert at the Barbican devoted to Waley-Cohen’s works, including the premieres of two newly commissioned works to complete Spell Book, performed by the Manchester Collective, and a new work for the Colin Currie Percussion Quartet which premiered at the Wigmore Hall in February 2024.

The RDMR contact for this client is Flora