About

‘Spinning an iridescent weave of music from attractively simple ideas’

The Telegraph

‘Shimmering textures were cleverly crafted’

The Times

‘The ear is led texturally, and expertly, throughout’

Seen and Heard International

Louise Drewett (b.1989) is a British composer, based in London.

‘Clearly a talent with a very distinct sensibility’ (The Telegraph), Louise writes music that draws on her formative experience working with community choirs. Her work has been commissioned and performed by ensembles and institutions including the London Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the International Guitar Foundation, EXAUDI, Festival Chorus, St Marylebone Festival, and St Luke’s Music Society. Louise’s community opera, ‘Daylighting’, commissioned by the Royal Academy of Music for their 200th Anniversary, was nominated for an Ivor Novello Award at the Ivors Composer Awards 2022.

Louise is a lecturer in composition at the Royal Academy of Music, and co-directs Sing Healthy Choirs, a charity who run community choirs in Berkshire. Louise has had long-term collaborations with poet Clare Shaw, writing works for voices and choirs, and with theatre company Arbonauts, writing for productions at Inside Out Dorset and Latitude festivals.

Louise studied on a scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music, where she was Manson Fellow in 2021-2022, and was awarded the 2018 and 2019 Charles Lucas Composition Prizes. Her study was supported by a Countess of Munster Musical Trust Award and a Vaughan Williams Bursary from the RVW Trust.

At the Royal Academy of Music, Louise studied composition with Philip Cashian, with additional tuition from Hans Abrahamsen and the late Oliver Knussen. She previously studied with Giles Swayne, and with Michael Finnissy as a Britten-Pears Young Artist at Aldeburgh Music, and at Dartington International Summer School.

Photo credit: Chelsey Browne