Claire Cope – Composer

Wednesday 3 September 2025

“Cope’s writing is skilful and bold…a phenomenal rising star…” Monarch Magazine

 

Claire Cope is an award winning British composer, pianist and bandleader whose work spans both contemporary classical, and jazz and improvised music. Concerned primarily with emotional connectivity and story-telling, Claire’s music has a strong sense of narrative and ‘journeying’, with focused melodic and rhythmic impetus. Her music has been performed in Europe and the United States, and she has performed at the Manchester Jazz Festival, the London Jazz Festival and as part of the BBC Proms Plus Series, broadcast on BBC Radio 3.

In 2022 Claire won a Marvin Hamlisch International Music Award, and in 2023 a UK Arts Council DYCP grant to compose new music for her 11 piece contemporary jazz ensemble, Ensemble C. Following their successful debut album ‘Small World’ in 2020, their latest album ‘Every Journey’ was recently released on the New York based Adhyâropa label to widespread critical acclaim, with Ron Schepper of Textura describing it as ‘a tremendous realization of her vision’ and Jerome Wilson of All About Jazz describing it as ‘a powerful album that establishes Claire Cope as a major new compositional voice.’

Claire has collaborated with a variety of ensembles and musicians, including saxophonists Andy Scott and Rob Buckland, and trumpeter Lucy Humphris. In 2021 she was commissioned by the ground-breaking Apollo Saxophone Quartet to compose a new work, and this piece was selected in the LunArt Festival Call for Scores 2024, receiving its US premiere in Madison, Wisconsin by the Ancia Sax Quartet.

In 2023, Claire was selected to participate in the LunArt Composer Hubwith composer Dorothy Chang, and was also a fellow on the Let’s Bespoken Mentorship programme. In 2024, she participated in the Three Choirs Festival New Voices Composer Academy, where The Carice Singers premiered her first choral work, ‘In Its Light’, performed again in July 2025 at the Spitalfields Music Festival, London.

Having previously studied piano performance at the Royal Northern College of Music, where she won the John Ireland Prize and the Principal’s Prize for Improvisation, during the 2024-2025 academic year, Claire continued her compositional studies with Gary Carpenter and Emily Howard at RNCM, with generous support from SJM Concerts Bursary. She has participated in workshops with the Hallé Orchestra, and the Fairey Band premiered her first piece for brass band ‘Through the Spiral’. In July 2025, Claire was one of 4 selected composers to attend the Edward T. Cone Composition Institute at Princeton, where the New Jersey Symphony orchestra premiered her piece ‘Agita’. In August 2025, Iva Ugrčić and Satoko Hayami will premiere Claire’s first piece for flute and piano at the National Flute Convention in Atlanta, Georgia.