About

Spanning orchestral-backed screams and intimate acoustic song sets, the work of composer and songwriter Emily Abdy has been described as “EPIC” (The Guardian) and “STRIKING” (The Wire). She has written for established ensembles and soloists across the UK and overseas and is an experienced media composer and arranger/orchestrator.

Recent commissions include the London Symphony Orchestra, Southbank Sinfonia, Orkest de Ereprijs, Laura Sinnerton (BBC National Orchestra of Wales) and Contemporary Music For All. She was appointed an artist in residence with Gabriel Prokofiev’s contemporary music label and promoter Nonclassical in 2021 and has since released music with their label, as well as with fellow London-based label NMC Recordings. Other residencies include the international Young Composers Meeting (NL), Ruhrtriennale Festival of the Arts campus (DE) and Leeds Song Festival composer and poets forum (UK).

She scored her own experimental short film, SKIN (2019), which was premiered with live score and surround sound audio and later commissioned as an installation to celebrate International Women’s Day in Birmingham UK. An experienced orchestrator and copyist, she has produced large-scale arrangements for other artists, including the late Richard Tandy and Dave Scott-Morgan, previously of Electric Light Orchestra.

Emily holds an MMus (Distinction) and BMus (Hons, First Class) in music composition from Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, where she was twice awarded the Orchestral Composition Prize, as well as the John Mayer Composition Prize. Her studies were endorsed by Universal Music UK. She has received mentorship from renowned artists, including Errollyn Wallen MBE, Joe Cutler, Ed Bennett, Elizabeth Bernholz (Gazelle Twin) and Neil Stemp (Bohemian Rhapsody) as well as individual lessons and masterclasses such as with Jennifer Walshe, Ayanna Witter-Johnson, Segun Akinola (Doctor Who), Dobrinka Tabakova and Martijn Padding. Most recently she was tutored in songwriting by Nandi Rose (Half Waif, Pinegrove).

Emily has lectured and mentored in composition, as well as on her own screen and popular music research, at established institutions such as the Institute of Popular Music and for education programmes such as the Young Composers Project.

She is currently based between London, Birmingham and the rural UK midlands.