Freya Waley-Cohen

Freya Waley-Cohen (born 20 February 1989) is a British-American composer based in London.

Biography

Waley-Cohen grew up in an arts-oriented family. Her mother is the American sculptor Josie Spencer and her father is English theatre manager and producer Stephen Waley-Cohen. Her sister is the violinist Tamsin Waley-Cohen. She began playing the violin at the age of three, and at aged 11 enrolled for a composition course at The Walden School, New Hampshire. She studied with Giles Swayne whilst an undergraduate at Cambridge, and then afterwards with Simon Bainbridge and Oliver Knussen at the Royal Academy of Music. In 2016 she was a Composition Fellow at the Tanglewood Festival.

Music

An early composition was Dark Hour, a piano quintet with clarinet, performed at the Sage Gateshead in May 2013. The choral piece Linea was written specifically for performance inside the Princess of Wales Conservatory glass house at Kew Gardens, an installation as much as a concert piece. It was performed there by the vocal ensemble Reverie in October 2014. Similarly Permutations (2017), for six recorded violins, is also site-specific. It was written to be performed inside a specially constructed building at the Aldeburgh Festival, created with architectural designers Finbarr O’Dempsey and Andrew Skulina. The six violin parts were recorded separately and the sound distributed around the building.

The song cycle Happiness for soprano and orchestra was the last piece Waley-Cohen worked on with her teacher Oliver Knussen before his death in July 2018. It premiered at St Luke Old Street on 19 October 2018, played by the London Symphony Orchestra with soloist Lauren Fagan. Ink for large ensemble, recorded by the Philharmonia Orchestra on the NMC label, was inspired by the poetry collection Bottled Air by Caleb Klaces (who also provided the text for Linea). Changeling, a 10-minute work for chamber orchestra, was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and premiered on 1 June 2019 by the LA Phil New Music Group at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, conducted by John Adams.

Her BBC Proms debut came with a performance of the octet Naiad at Cadogan Hall by the Knussen Chamber Orchestra, led by Ryan Wigglesworth, on 9 September 2019. Conjure, a string trio, was commissioned by the Wigmore Hall and given its first performance at the hall on 2 November 2019 by the Albion Quartet. Spell Book for soloists and chamber orchestra, setting poems from Rebecca Tamás’s 2019 collection WITCH, was commissioned by the Britten Sinfonia and first performed on 21 January 2020 in Cambridge. Spell Book (Volume 2) was premiered at Conway Hall on 1 March 2020. The complete cycle, eight songs lasting around 45 minutes, was given its premiere at Milton Court in London on 1 February 2024.

In March 2022 the premiere of her hour-long opera WITCH (also setting Rebecca Tamás) took place at the Royal Academy of Music as part of its 200th anniversary celebrations. Freya was composer in residence with the London Chamber Orchestra for the 2021-22 season, where performances of her works included Saffron and Happiness as well as the new work Pocket Cosmos, written for the orchestra.

Works

2012

• Ascension, solo cello
• A Pyrrhic Smile, violin and cello

2013

• In the Bubble Gum Jungle, soprano & piano
• Ignite, orchestra
• Five Breaths, solo piano
• Day Three, flute, saxophone, harp and string quartet
• Dark Hour, clarinet, piano & string quartet
• Sillage, ensemble and solo violin
• Regen, flute, clarinet, piano and string trio
• Fragments, violin and guitar

2014

• Linea - Pleasure Trip, vocal ensemble (text Caleb Klaces)
• Southern Leaves, solo piano
• Tree Rings, organ and percussion trio
• Stella, brass ensemble
• To Declare, baritone or tenor & piano
• Daphna, horn trio
• Just so we can Dance, accordion, clarinet and string trio

2015

• Glass, percussion quartet
• Landay, piano and voice
• Nocturne, solo clarinet
• Oyster, soprano, clarinet, harp & double bass
• Unveil, solo violin
• Attired with Stars, choir and audience
• Sunstone, horn octet
• Little Poisonous Snakes, soprano, piano, oboe, cello

2016

• Unbridling, viola da gamba
• We Phoenician Sailors, soprano, harp, clarinet, double bass (text Octavia Bright)
• BluTack for Sophie, solo harp
• Blu-Tack, harp and viola
• Sardine, cello and piano
• Wing, violin duet
• Magpie, small orchestra
• Likeness, six violins
• The Rope and Glass Between Us, vocal ensemble
• Saffron, small orchestra

2017

• Skye, solo harp
• Snap Dragon, string quartet
• Vitae, string quartet
• Permutations, six recorded violins
• Bandstand, orchestra
• Vita, string quartet
• Blu-Tack, vibraphone and clarinet

2018

• Happiness, song cycle for soprano and orchestra
• Ink, large mixed ensemble
• Isle, solo piano
• Water, accordion and cello

2019

• Lend us your Voice, choral, written for the King's Singers
• Naiad, octet
• Winterbourne, string quartet
• Dust, string quartet
• Once, choir and audience
• Changeling, chamber orchestra
• Wake, clarinet, viola da gamba, cello
• Caffeine, recorder
• Conjure, string trio

2020

• Spell Book, chamber orchestra
• Spell Book (Volume 2), soprano and string quartet (text Rebecca Tamás)
• Talisman, for String Ensemble
• spell for reality, soprano and ensemble
• Amulet, for string quintet

2021

• Amulet for guitar
• Bad Habit, piano
• Caffeine, caprice for violin

2022

• Pocket Cosmos for orchestra
• for Simon, piano
• WITCH, opera

2023

• Demon for orchestra (fp. 22 February, Birmingham)

2024

• Spell Book (first complete performance, 1 February, London)
• Stone Fruit for percussion ensemble (fp. 27/2/24, Colin Currie Quartet, Wigmore Hall)
• Mother Tongue (for the London Philharmonic Orchestra, November 2024)

External links

• Freya Waley-Cohen website
• Recordings on Soundcloud
• Performance of Conjure by the Albion Quartet, Wigmore Hall, 2 November, 2019
• Documentary about the world premiere performance of Linea at Kew Gardens, October 2014
• Freya Waley-Cohen on This Classical Life, BBC Radio 3