On this page, Amy introduces herself in her own words, and shares links to her music and website. We warmly invite programmers and commissioners to take a closer look at Amy’s work, and please be in touch with us if you would like to connect with her.

About Amy

'I am a London-based composer from South Africa. My works are performed internationally and I have enjoyed working with leading ensembles and festivals, including the London Symphony Orchestra, Deutsche Grammophon, the Austrian Ensemble for New Music, Festival Précences, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and International Society for Contemporary Music World New Music Days. I truly enjoy the collaborative aspects of my work, and have partnered with several organisations as composer-in-residence. 

My music has been described as having ‘a real feeling of ecstasy’ (Planet Hugill); ‘carrying images and sensations’ (Ôlyrix); and as ‘an act of love’ (Opera Now). Within my recent compositions, I have been exploring the intertwining relationships between sensoria, physicality and embodiment. Often fuelled by my own personal experiences with the natural world, my work straddles multiple ways of musicalising physical interactions with materials and phenomena, while making space for embodied knowledge and other-than-human ways of thinking.

I hold a DMus in composition from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where I am now a Professor of Composition. I previously studied composition at the South African College of Music.'

Highlights

• Amy will have a new piece performed by London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) at the Barbican in 2028, following her participation in the 2025-26 Helen Hamlyn Panufnik Composers Scheme.
• She was selected for the LSO’s Soundhub scheme in 2023-24, in which she developed her piece November moon readings for large percussion and plant materials.
• Amy has had music commissioned by Radio France, Contemporary Music for All, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Ensemble Matters, the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, and the South African Music Rights Organisation, among others.
• Amy’s orchestration of Pauline Viardot’s salon opera Cendrillon, commissioned and premiered by the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, has been performed multiple times, including by the BBC Concert Orchestra, Opera North and Welsh National Opera.

Find out more

If you are interested in finding out more about Amy, hearing and and keeping up to date with her work, take a look at her website below:

• Website

Amy's RPS commission and her place on the RPS Composers programme is kindly supported by the Susan Bradshaw Composers' Fund. The RPS Composers programme could not happen without the support of RPS Members, PRS Foundation Talent Development Network supported by PPL, Delius Trust, Fidelio Charitable Trust, Garrick Charitable Trust, Idlewild Trust, John Ellerman Foundation, Marchus Trust, Presteigne Festival, RPS Susan Bradshaw Composers' Fund, Vaughan Williams Foundation, WildKat, and several anonymous donors.