2024/25 Philharmonia Instrumental Fellowship and Composers’ Academy

The Philharmonia’s Talent Development programmes are committed to developing the next generation of talent in the classical music industry. Each year, we appoint a cohort of Instrumental Fellows and Composers Fellows. Across the year, they work with and are mentored by members of the Orchestra, developing their artistic skills alongside some of the world’s leading musicians.

The Philharmonia’s new cohort of Instrumental Fellows for 2024/25 are:

Lucia Porcedda – clarinet
Joidy Blanco Lewis – flute
Francesca Cox – oboe
Tom Thornton – trumpet
Pau Hernández Santamaria – trombone
José Teixeira – bass trombone
Jia Yu Kian Hsu – percussion

Find out more about our Instrumental Fellows on the Our Players page.

“Lessons with my mentor prepared me excellently for auditions, sit ins and observed rehearsals were excellent for helping me understand the inner workings of a pro orchestra, and the outreach work I did helped me to broaden my ideas of what being an orchestral musician actually entails.”  Calum Crosbie, Timpani Fellow (2023/24)

The Philharmonia’s Composers’ Academy is an established programme for exceptional musicians from diverse backgrounds who are looking to forge a composing career.

Each year, the Philharmonia appoints three composers, who are given the opportunity to develop their skills as composers and to create a new work as part of the Orchestra’s flagship Music of Today chamber music series.

The programme begins with a series of workshops and masterclasses, before the composers work closely with members o the Philharmonia to create and rehearse their new commissions. The fellowship culminates in the live premiere of the three compositions at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall and a profesionally produced recording.

The Philharmonia’s three Composers’ Academy Fellows for 2024/25 are:

Soosan Lolovar
Sarah Lianne Lewis
Elif Karlidag 

Soosan Lolovar is a British Iranian composer whose music ‘sounds like nothing else on earth’ (Gramophone). Her work moves far beyond metaphors of “fusion” or assumptions of a binary opposition between east and west, instead aiming for a deeper, lifelong conversation between these musical traditions wherein her personal experience and creative work intertwine to produce something uniquely diasporic. Her work is concerned with deep attendance to the texture, transformation and layering of sound. Through these means, she creates music which continues to resonate in the world long after we have stopped listening.

Sarah Lianne Lewis is a Welsh composer of bold and imaginative classical music, described as ‘vivid’, ‘charming’, and ‘poignant’. Her music is often about connection, climate change and the natural world, informed by a female disabled perspective, and her work seeks to promote and provoke discussions about challenging topics with openness and thoughtfulness. Sarah’s music has been performed worldwide, and she has worked with a variety of performers, audiences and spaces; from textual orchestral works in concert halls, to contemplative chamber ensemble works in a late-night gin bar, to creating expansive storytelling soundscapes through silent disco headphones under the stars. She was Composer Affiliate with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales (2020-24), and has previously worked with organisations such as the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Chorus of the Royal Northern Sinfonia, Quatuor Bozzini, UPROAR, the Royal Opera and Ballet, and the Nevis Ensemble. Recordings of Sarah’s music are available through the Birmingham Record Company, NMC Recordings and Ty Cerdd Records.

Elif Karlidağ is a Turkish/British composer whose work spans multidisciplinary projects, community engagement, and stage productions. She has collaborated with ensembles such as the Scratch Orchestra and Ligeti Quartet and co-founded the East London Sound Ensemble (ELSE), an electro-acoustic group amplifying underrepresented voices in contemporary classical music. Her work includes creating sonic elements for Marguerite Humeau’s Oscillations and composing music for films like Hamlet Within, starring Sir Ian McKellen. Elif has received commissions from English National Opera and the Three Choirs Festival. Her performances have graced venues such as the Royal Festival Hall and Barbican Centre. Elif began her musical journey in Bucharest, Romania, earning a Master’s in composition from Izmir DEU State Conservatoire, where she studied under Istemihan Taviloglu. She later refined her skills at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Elif is the current holder of the John Clementi Collard Fellowship from the Worshipful Company of Musicians.

Find out more about Composers’ Academy here.