Kate Whitley

She is classically trained and studied music at King's College, Cambridge. Her music is recorded by NMC Recordings and her debut release, I am, I say was released in 2017. It was described as "unpretentious and appealingly vigorous music" and "an excellent introduction to her sonic world". She won a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Special Award in 2014. Her music has been broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 and performed as part of the BBC Proms. In 2017, Whitley was commissioned by Radio 3 to compose a piece for International Women's Day, setting the words of Malala Yousafzai's 2013 speech to the UN. The piece, called Speak Out, was premiered on 8 March 2017 in the Hoddinott Hall in Cardiff, with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Chorus of Wales alongside the children's choir Cor y Cwm, conducted by Xian Zhang. In July 2022 a new oratorio, Our Future In Your Hands was performed at the Buxton Festival, with an orchestra of young musicians from the Royal Northern College of Music and a choir drawn from local schools. The text, by Laura Attridge, voices climate change concerns from the point of view of young people. Multi-Story Orchestra Whitley co-founded the Multi-Story Orchestra with conductor Christopher Stark in 2011. The orchestra's first performance was of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring in a car park in Peckham, London. The project won the 2016 Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award for Audiences and Engagement. == List of works ==

Solo/chamber works • Duo for violin and viola • 3 pieces for violin and piano • Five piano pieces • Two songs for clarinet and piano • Lines for string quartet Orchestral • Autumn Songs for 12 solo strings (7 violins, 2 violas, 2 cellos, bass) • Viola Concerto • Split for solo clarinet, solo percussion and strings • The Animals • Sky Dances Choral • I am I say (words by Sabrina Mahfouz) for soprano, bass, children's choir orchestra • Speak Out (words by Malala Yousafzai, written in support of the campaign for girls’ right to education) for children's choir, SATB chorus and orchestra • Alive (words by Holly McNish) for children's choir and orchestra • The Cruel Cut (words by Sabrina Mahfouz, written in support of the campaign to stop FGM in the UK) for 4 sopranos, community choir including solo untrained voice, piano • * Our Future In Your Hands, oratorio, words by Laura Attridge, Buxton Festival, fp 10 July 2022 Dramatic • Paws and Padlocks (children's opera, libretto by Sabrina Mahfouz) • Unknown Position (libretto by Emma Hogan) • Ignite, ballet (2018) == References ==