L A U R A   S H I P S E Y

Exploring approaches to musical form and multiplicity through networks of highly expressive material, Laura Shipsey (b.1991) is a British composer of acoustic concert music often inspired by animal behaviour and the human experience,  With a catalogue ranging from the fully composed to fully improvised, traditionally notated to graphically scored, demanding at once virtuosity, deep expressivity, and a very real engagement with the imaginary, Laura's music pushes at boundaries of detail, genre, and abstraction.

2023 saw two firsts for Laura - a carol and a string quartet. The carol 'O Nacht!' sets text by Annette von Droste-Hülshoff and was commissioned for the choir of St. Mark's Hamilton Terrace and Daniel Collins, premiered as part of a service of advent carols. The string quartet has been a longer term project with movements spanning 2018-23, the first worked on with Sir Harrison Birtwistle at Dartington International Summer School, and the final movements written for the Bozzini Quartet at the Time of Music Festival in Viitasaari, Finland, 2023.   Amongst other recent highlights ‘The Time Being’ for sinfonietta, written as part of the Britten Pears Young Artists Programme beginning just before the covid 19 pandemic received its premiere in summer 2022 alongside the subsequent Britten Pears Arts commission ‘Crossing Songs’, for Emily Thorner (soprano) and the Britten Pears Contemporary Ensemble conducted by Jonathan Berman at the Aldeburgh Festival 2022.  That same year ‘Feathered Air’ for solo piano recorded by Benjamin Powell as part of Psappha’s composing for... scheme received its online premiere,  and 'Of Far Flung Skies' - a work for the City of Bristol Brass Band and Learner band created through the Adopt  a Composer scheme received its premiere at St. George's Hall, Bristol conducted by Ian Holmes, and a BBC Radio 3 Broadcast.

Laura is an alumnus of the Britten Pears Young Artists programme (2019-20/22), as well as Dartington International Summer School (2019), the Adopt a Composer programme (2019-22) run by Making Music, supported by Sound and Music, and the PRS Foundation, and the Vale of Glamorgan Composers Studio (2019). Laura’s work has been performed across the UK and internationally by artists including: Alpaca Ensemble, Aldworth Philharmonic Orchestra, Bozzini Quartet, Cambridge, Heidelberg, Montpellier Youth Orchestra, Taceti Ensemble, Ana Beatriz Ferreira and Fenella Humphreys. For more details on Laura's music explore the list of works and performances, or get in touch for more information.

Laura is currently undertaking a PhD (2020-24) supported by a Cardiff University studentship under the supervision of Arlene Sierra and David Beard.  Her research explores discontinuity, line, and the relationship between material and form as well as new avenues for notation in this context.  Laura holds a BA(Hons) in music from Durham University (2010-13), where she studied composition with Sam Hayden and Eric Egan, an MA in Music from Cardiff University (2017-18), where she studied composition with Arlene Sierra, Pedro Faria Gomes, and Robert Fokkens. 

Whilst completing her PhD Laura was appointed as a graduate tutor at Cardiff University, supporting modules in composition and performance studies. Laura is an Associate Fellow of Advance HE, an organisation committed to enhancing and developing teaching practice in Higher Education.

Alongside her practice as a composer Laura works as a freelance music editor, engraver, typesetter, and proofreader, and has had the privilege of working on a wide range of music by some eminently talented composers. Find out more about Laura's editorial work here.