From County Down in Northern Ireland, Amelia (b. Dec 1995) currently works between Belfast, Dublin and Manchester on politically-motivated music, juxtaposing folk and classical influences in her approach. Her music has been described as "inherent elusiveness.. ..beautifully captured" (Het Parool).
Spanning dance, stage and concert hall, Amelia's music has been performed across the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands including at Opera Holland Park, South Bank Centre, the Elgar Concert Hall, King's Place, Hugh Lane Gallery, Wigmore Hall and Internationaal Theater Amsterdam. She was the National Concert Hall and Sounding the Feminists's recipient of the 2021 Mid-career/Emerging Commissioning Award and is currently writing a new work for the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland as a 2024 Composer Lab Composer, facilitated by CMC in association with RTE Lyric FM. She has created new pieces for ensembles including Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble, Crash Ensemble and the Central Band of the Royal Air Force and for performers including pianist Lana Bode, soprano Alison Langer and harpist Oliver Wass.
Amelia collaborates frequently dance artists. Her lengthy collaboration with choreographer and classical dancer Ruaidhrí Maguire has resulted in one-act ballet Dear Frances (2019, Blackheath Halls), a film for mobile application Corners (2023), and most recently, two act ballet White Doves (2023, The MAC) as Composer in residence with Six Dance Collective. This year, her work Ephemeral (2024, national tour) with choreographer Wubkje Kuindersma commissioned by the Dutch National Ballet and Dutch National Ballet Orchestra for the Junior Company's 10th Anniversary, toured the Netherlands to fifteen venues.
Amelia is the 2022 Mendelssohn Scholar. Awarded to a composer for for advanced study since 1856, this scholarship supports her current PhD at the Royal Northern College of Music, supervised by Laura Bowler and Gary Carpenter.
Amelia's research is centered on creating new music for dance which navigates themes of violence. Amelia gratefully acknowledges further support from the RNCM which makes her doctoral research possible.
Support for Amelia's creative practice includes the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, PRS Foundation Women Make Music, Vaughan Willians Foundation and Hinrichsen Foundation. In 2024, she became a Composer with Music Patron, which provides support from members of the public who choose to become Amelia's Patrons. She is represented by CMC Ireland as an Associate Composer.
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.
