Emily Hazrati
Emily is one of eight composers selected for a place on the 2025 RPS Composers programme. This will culminate in her writing a new piece, commissioned by the RPS, for The Marian Consort.
On this page, Emily introduces herself in her own words, and shares links to her music, her website, and her social media platforms. We warmly invite programmers and commissioners to take a closer look at Emily's work, and please be in touch with us if you would like to connect with her.
About Emily
'Hello! I’m Emily and I am a composer, educator and performer based in London. I see the creation of new sounds as a uniquely open-ended way of understanding the world around us, and my line of work as a means of inviting our communities to live and breathe this experience together.
My journey into composition began with a love of writing for voice, and of narrative and text – leading me to embrace collaborative, interdisciplinary art forms such as opera. Today, I am fascinated with blending elements of theatre and vocality outside of their usual contexts, and extending the boundaries of what we understand ‘vocal’ and ‘instrumental’ composition to mean. As part of this, my work is preoccupied with liminal spaces, process-led approaches to writing, and centring the performer in my creative practice.
I am often inspired by ideas of environment, place and belonging; with a strong affinity to sounds and landscapes from the natural world, and an interest in using origins as a creative starting point with my collaborators. More recently, this has involved exploring my own Iranian heritage, taking inspiration from Persian art, literature, and folk music.
I currently teach at Centre for Young Musicians as their Composition Tutor and Coordinator (part of Guildhall Young Artists), and on Music in the Round’s WeCompose programme: an initiative bringing composition to teenage students across the country.'
Highlights
- Emily is Oxford Song's Associate Composer for 2024-26, with premieres of her compositions at Oxford International Song Festival planned for 2025 and 2026.
- Recent and upcoming engagements include a new work for London Symphony Orchestra on their Panufnik Composers scheme 2024-25, a commission for St Martin’s Voices, and music for Uckfield Concert Brass as part of Making Music’s Adopt a Music Creator programme 2024.
- Emily was awarded PRS Foundation’s The Open Fund for a new song project with Ella Taylor and Jocelyn Freeman, featuring in SongEasel’s 2024 ‘A Vast Obscurity’ series.
- In 2023 Emily was one of National Youth Choir’s Young Composers, including two new pieces released on NMC Recordings which received critical acclaim from BBC Music Magazine.
- Emily’s piece György’s Apprentice was performed by the Ligeti Quartet at the Aldeburgh Festival 2023, and broadcast on BBC Radio 3’s New Music Show, with repeat performances across the UK and Canada.
- In 2022, Emily’s chamber opera TIDE, commissioned by Britten Pears Arts, was performed at the Aldeburgh Festival to sold-out audiences.
The 2025 RPS Composers each had the opportunity to host a show on Resonance FM, curating an hour of music for Sound and Music's The Sampler Mixtape. Click the play button below to listen to Emily's mixtape, which takes us on a journey between genres and cultural influences, featuring her own works and some of her favourite tracks, from Persian folk music to contemporary British opera.
Find out more
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, Harold Hyam Wingate Foundation, Idlewild Trust, John Ellerman Foundation, Marchus Trust, Presteigne Festival, Radcliffe Trust, Susan Bradshaw Composers' Fund, Vaughan Williams Foundation, and several anonymous donors.
