Amelia Clarkson

(b. 1995)
Photo
Jannah Bell

 

Amelia is a composer from County Down whose music spans both the stage and concert hall. Her work juxtaposes folk influences with contemporary timbres, exploring contemporary issues through the lens of nature, mythology, and literature.

Dance is a central focus of Amelia’s creative practice. Recent highlights include Ephemeral for the Dutch National Ballet Junior Company’s 2024 National Tour, described as having “inherent elusiveness… beautifully captured” (Het Parool), and Six Dance Collective’s White Doves (The MAC, 2023) and the dance film Corners (2023), created as Composer in Residence. Amelia is a PhD candidate at the Royal Northern College of Music, where her research on composing for dance is supported by the 2022 Mendelssohn Scholarship. She is supervised by Laura Bowler and Gary Carpenter.

Amelia's concert music includes pieces for Crash Ensemble, Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble, the Central Band of the Royal Air Force, soprano Alison Langer, pianist Lana Bode, and harpist Oliver Wass, with performances at venues including Opera Holland Park, Kings Place, Southbank Centre, and Wigmore Hall. 2025 season highlights include a recording with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the premiere of Six Dance Collective’s The View from Mars at Belfast’s Lyric Theatre.

Her work has received support from PRS Foundation’s Women Make Music, the Hinrichsen Foundation, the Vaughan Williams Foundation and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. Amelia was awarded the 2021 National Concert Hall and Sounding the Feminists Emerging/Mid-Career Commissioning Prize and, in 2024, became a Music Patron Composer as part of Sound and Music’s initiative to reimagine music patronage for the 21st century.