From County Down in Northern Ireland, Amelia (b. 1995) currently works between Belfast and Manchester. Her music is described as “inherent elusiveness… beautifully captured” (Het Parool), and is deeply informed by dance and movement as she blends folk influences with contemporary timbres. Moving fluidly between the concert hall and stage, Amelia's music has been performed across the UK, Ireland, Netherlands and France.
Between 2024-26, Amelia has composed six orchestral works for National Symphony Orchestra Ireland, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Ulster Orchestra, making history as the youngest commissioned female composer in the Ulster Orchestra's history with the premiere of The Rain Keeps Coming at the Ulster Hall in October 2025. Following this, she is recording her debut disc with the Ulster Orchestra for release on Delphian Records in 2027, supported by the PRS Foundation Composers' Fund, Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Vaughan Williams Foundation.
Commissions for 2026 and 2027 include Porcelain for National Symphony Orchestra Ireland , a new work for Scotland's Hebrides Ensemble, Yellow Lavender for The Marian Consort, a new string quartet for the Talland Quartet at Mourne Chamber Music Festival, alongside developing a new opera, supported by Arts Council Ireland.
Dance forms a large portion of Amelia's practice. As co-founder and Composer in Residence of Six Dance Collective, she has scored all productions to-date, including Belfast's first ever ballet, and bringing local dance back to the Lyric Theatre. In 2024, her work Ephemeral with choreographer Wubkje Kuindersma commissioned by the Dutch National Ballet for the Junior Company's 10th Anniversary, toured to fifteen venues across the Netherlands.
Amelia is a 2026 RPS Composer, a current recipient of The Composers' Fund and the recipient of the 2021 National Concert Hall and Sounding the Feminists's Commissioning Award. Further support for Amelia's creative practice includes the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, PRS Foundation Women Make Music, Vaughan Williams Foundation and Hinrichsen Foundation. In 2024, she became a Composer with Music Patron, Sound and Music’s initiative to reimagine music patronage for the 21st century. She is an Associate Composer with Contemporary Music Centre Ireland.
Currently in the final year of her PhD at the Royal Northern College of Music, her research is supported a the 2022 Mendelssohn Scholar and with further support from the RNCM. Supervised by Laura Bowler and Gary Carpenter. Amelia's research is centered on the impact of composing for dance on her orchestral output.
Born and raised in County Down, Amelia's music carries influences from her early influences from traditional Irish folk music and classical training as a soprano and flautist. She took Music at Cardiff University, graduating in 2017 with first class honours. From 2017-19 she completed her Masters of Music in Composition at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance with distinction. As a Trinity College London Scholar and with the support of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Trust, she studied under Deirdre Gribbin, Errollyn Wallen CBE, Edward Jessen and John Ashton Thomas. In November 2018, Amelia received the Worshipful Company of Musicians' 2018 Medal for Trinity Laban, joining the prestigious Yeomen Young Artist Programme as the first composer to receive the medal for the college.
