ABOUT LAURA
Laura Shipsey is a composer of concert music and cross-disciplinary installations based in Hertfordshire, UK. Often inspired by the imaginary and the abstract, animal behaviour and the human experience, Laura's work is rooted in periods of close collaboration and experimentation, research and play.
Highlights to date include commissions from Britten Pears Arts (Crossing Songs), the Aldworth Philharmonic Orchestra (Samara), St Mark's Hamilton Terrace (O Nacht!), and Cambridge, Heidelberg, Montpellier Youth Orchestra (A Common Language and Hatch). Laura was composer in residence with the City of Bristol Brass Band and Learner Band through Making Music's Adopt a Composer scheme in 2019-20, through which she ran composition workshops with both bands, exploring collaborative approaches to improvisation and composition, and developed her first large scale work for brass Of Far Flung Skies, later broadcast on BBC Radio 3. In 2019 her clarinet trio Beacons won Musicon Durham's call for scores and was premiered by the Alpaca Ensemble. Laura is an alumnus of the Britten Pears Young Artists programme (2019-20) mentored by Colin Matthews and Mark-Anthony Turnage, Psapha's Composing for... scheme (2020-21) working with Benjamin Powell and Clare Salaman, Dartington International Summer School (2019) mentored by Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Impuls Academy, Graz, Austria (2019) where she worked with Simon Løffler on her improvisatory durational work In Tiled, and The Time of Music Festival, Viitasaari Finland (2023) where she worked with the Bozzini Quartet on the completion of her first string quartet.
Laura is currently completing a PhD (2020-24) supported by a Cardiff University studentship under the supervision of Arlene Sierra and David Beard. Her research explores discontinuity in composition, line, character, and the relationship between material and form. Laura holds a BA(Hons) in music from Durham University (2010-13), where she studied composition with Sam Hayden and Eric Egan, and an MA in Music from Cardiff University (2017-18), where she studied composition with Arlene Sierra, Pedro Faria Gomes, and Robert Fokkens.
For more details on Laura's music explore the list of works and performances, or get in touch for more information, scores, or enquiries.
TEACHING & OUTREACH
Whilst completing her PhD Laura worked as a graduate tutor in composition at Cardiff University, supporting modules in composition, performance studies, and music history. Laura is an Associate Fellow of Advance HE, an organisation committed to enhancing and developing teaching practice in Higher Education. Laura is also an experienced workshop leader and curator, passionate about broadening access to the arts and sharing contemporary and experimental new music in directly relevant and meaningful ways.
Editorial
Alongside her practice as a composer Laura works as a freelance music editor, engraver, typesetter, and proofreader having trained under Elaine Gould and Robert Summers as part of Faber Music's New Music editorial department from 2018-22 Find out more about Laura's editorial work here.
Images (top to bottom): 1. Laura, in Fowlmere (2023) photo by Ben Wallis, 2. on Aldeburgh beach (2019) photo by Euchar Gravina, 3. with the Hooting Cow Collective at Music Since 1900, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (2022) photo by Nicholas Jones, 4. Snape Maltings (2019) photo by Britten Pears Arts, 5. working with the City of Bristol Learner Band (2020) photo by Joanna Pearson, 6. Aldeburgh Festival (2022) photo by Zoe Martlew, 7. working with Benjamin Powell as part of Psappha's composing for piano scheme (2022) photo by Psappha, 8. Solitude/Trailblazer, for violinist in a crowd (2018)