Laura Bowler

Laura Bowler is a composer and vocalist specialising in music-theatre, multi-disciplinary work and opera. She has been commissioned and featured across the globe by ensembles and festivals, including the Royal Opera House, Music on Main (Canada), Ensemble Phace (Austria), Festiva Musica (France) and Omega Ensemble (Australia). As a vocal soloist she has performed and premiered works internationally, including the premiere of Louis Aguirre’s The Way The Dead Love as part of the European Capital of Culture Aarhus programme. She is also the vocalist in contemporary music ensemble, Ensemble Lydenskab, based in Denmark, and has recently formed a duo with Red Note Ensemble’s flautist Ruth Morley.

Bowler’s recent compositions include The Blue Woman, a chamber opera commissioned by the Royal Opera House and Britten Pears Arts; Wicked Problems for flute and soprano, commissioned by sound Festival, which won the Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Chamber-scale Composition and was nominated for an Ivor Composer Award. Her other projects include music-theatre work,Houses Slide, a bike powered work for ensemble and cycling soprano commissioned by London Sinfonietta, ADVERT, commissioned by Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, New Music Dublin, November Music, Ultima, Musica Estrana, Music on Main and Time of Music festivals; and Antarctica, a 50-minute multimedia work for orchestra and vocalist co-commissioned by Manchester Camerata and BBC Radio 3.

Laura completed her BMus (Hons) at the Royal Northern College of Music and Sibelius Academy (Finland), followed by her MMus and PhD at the Royal Academy of Music. She also completed an MA in Theatre Directing at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She is currently Lecturer in Composition at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Trinity Laban Conservatoire and the Royal Northern College of Music. This season her new opera, Girl with the Hurricane Brain, commissioned by Ensemble Lydenskab premieres in Aarhus and Copenhagen Opera Festival in Summer 2024. She will also begin work on a new orchestral song cycle for Barbara Hannigan commissioned by London Symphony Orchestra, Copenhagen Philharmonic and Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra.

Laura is a Lecturer in Composition at the Royal Northern College of Music, Trinity Laban Conservatoire and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She is also the Vocal Composing Group lead tutor at the Sound and Music Summer School.

Laura completed her BMus (Hons) at the RNCM and Sibelius Academy (Finland), followed by her MMus and PhD at the Royal Academy of Music. She also completed an MA in Theatre Directing at RADA.