From County Down in Northern Ireland, Amelia (b. 1995) currently works between Belfast, Manchester and Gdansk, Poland on politically-motivated music, juxtaposing folk and classical influences in her approach.  Amelia is a current PRS Foundation Women Make Music grantee and her creative practice is supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. In January 2023, it was announced that she will hold the Mendelssohn Scholarship. Awarded for advanced study since 1856, this scholarship will support her current PhD at the RNCM.

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Amelia's music has been performed at venues and events across the UK including the Southbank Centre, the Elgar Concert Hall, Blackheath Halls, Regent Hall, the Presteigne, Leeds Lieder, Herne Hill, London Guitar and Cardiff Guitar festivals. Recent work includes I AM LEDA (2021), commissioned by the National Concert Hall and Sounding the Feminists as the recipient of their Mid-career/Emerging Commissioning Award; Blowing Through (2021), commissioned by the Crash Ensemble; solo guitar work She Lingers (2021), recently performed by Shannon-Latoyah Simon at London Guitar Festival, Kings Place and Cardiff Guitar Festival. Performances in 2022 include the premieres of Sisterhive (2021) by Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble at QUB, Belfast in January; Central Band of the Royal Air Force commission A Picture on the Wall (2020) at Regent Hall in March and a premiere at Opera Holland Park of song-set 'Run With Me' with soprano Alison Langer. Presteigne Festival commission Through His Gaze (2020) received the 2nd place Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Prize in the 2020 Philip Bates Trust Prize. 

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Amelia is dedicated collaborator with musicians, theatre artists, writers and classical and contemporary dance artists. Her lengthy collaboration with choreographer and classical soloist Ruaidhrí Maguire has been described as 'astounding', the fruit of which was one-act ballet Dear Frances (2019), based on the life of the wife of gangster Reggie Kray.  Her collaboration with Maguire is ongoing, as they currently develop a new ballet for based on ideas of peace and identity in Northern Ireland from the viewpoint of the post-Troubles generation, depicting the forming of Peace People movement in 1970's Belfast, with research and development supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and music creation funded by PRS Foundation's Women Make Music, the Vaughan Williams Foundation and the Hinrichsen Foundation.

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Amelia is a current PhD candidate 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 and stage which aims to challenge attitudes to sexual consent through cross-collaborative practice. Amelia gratefully acknowledges support from the RNCM and the Mnedelssohn Scholarship Foundation which makes her doctoral research possible.

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Prior, Amelia 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, receiving a 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 Silver Medal for Trinity Laban, becoming the only female composer on their prestigious Yeomen Young Artist Programme and the first composer to receive the medal for the college. She also was the winner of the Pro Youth Philharmonia's commissioning competition in conjunction with the college, resulting in the tour A Beacon of Hope in the orchestra's 2019 UK tour.

 

Amelia's music carries influences from her traditional Irish folk background and classical training as a soprano and flautist.

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Full CV available on request. 

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