Meet our Featured Composer: Anna Clyne

Was there a particular moment when you decided to be a composer?

There is definitely a defining moment in my musical life: back in 2008, my mother suddenly passed away. At the time I was writing a very chaotic, turbulent, energetic piece. As soon as I received the news, I totally shifted gears, and this sound-world was an opportunity for me to reflect on what had happened.

I realised in that moment that I turned to music to process these strong feelings and also to have a connection to someone that I had recently lost, which is a very beautiful thing that music can do. In that situation, I knew that I am a composer. This is how I deal with life’s big challenges. And that gave me a confidence to move into the world, trusting my own instincts and trusting my musical voice.

How did you first become interested in music?

I didn’t grow up in a household with classical music, but we did have a lot of folk and pop music of the time, from Fleetwood Mac to Dire Straits, David Bowie, and jazz singers like Ella Fitzgerald. And that sense of melody has really stuck with me even though my music’s not really in that vocabulary. When I was seven, some friends of our family gave us a piano and it had some randomly missing keys, but I started taking piano lessons and then teaching myself while avoiding those keys. I would write pieces for myself to play with my friends, and then a couple of years later started playing the cello which is my main instrument. That’s when I really fell in love with classical repertoire. I’ll never forget first playing Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition arranged by Ravel. That really blew my mind, to be in the centre of this beautiful sound-world.

How would you describe your musical style?

I have a background in electroacoustic composition, which combines live musicians with prerecorded sounds. It was only really in my 20s that I started to explore transferring those electronic processes into orchestration. So I would say that my musical style really owes a lot to that early exploration of electronics.

How do you start a new project?

The starting point is always: what are you trying to say, what’s the structure? I always start at the piano; I’ll find a melody or harmonic progression that really captures my ear. I often collaborate with artists in other fields and that can generate material for a new composition, or sometimes I’ll turn to literature or nature as a source of inspiration.

Tell us a bit about being the Philharmonia’s Featured Composer for the 2022/23 season.

It really is the dream of a composer to have your music come to life with this calibre of musicianship. It’s also particularly meaningful that I have an opportunity to return to London, which is where I was born, and to reconnect with the city as an adult. So thank you so much for this opportunity