about Joanna Marsh
Biography
Joanna Marsh is a British composer whose work spans orchestral, operatic, vocal and choral music. Her scores have been performed at Sydney Opera House, the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall and the Elbphilharmonie, and have been described by The Guardian as among the finest writing for the voice being produced today, a reputation for choral music that sits within a much wider body of work for orchestra, ensemble and stage.
Her theatrical and orchestral output includes her first opera, My Beautiful Camel, a collaboration with librettist David Pountney inspired by her years living in Dubai; the string work Another Eden, written for the United Strings of Europe and Gandini Juggling; and an orchestral work composed to mark the opening of the Burj Khalifa. She has also received a commission from the BBC Symphony Orchestra for the BBC Proms in Dubai and wrote the fanfare performed for Queen Elizabeth II's visit to Abu Dhabi.
Alongside this, Joanna has built a distinguished body of choral and vocal work. Her 2021 piece All Shall Be Well, written for the ORA Singers, won the choral section of the Ivors Composer Awards in 2022. Other recent commissions include SEEN, a twenty-minute work for choir and electronics written for the BBC Singers and premiered at Milton Court under Sofi Jeannin; Threadlands for RIAS Kammerchor and Ensemble Resonanz; a set of four choral songs for I Fagiolini; In Winter's House for Tenebrae; and Echoes in Time, a triptych for the Choir of St John's College, Cambridge. From 2015 to 2020 she was Composer in Residence at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, writing for the College Choir and organ.
Joanna has divided her time between the UK and Dubai since 2007, a connection to the Middle East that is unusual among British composers and has opened distinctive creative opportunities, from the Burj Khalifa commission to the founding of the Dubai Opera Festival Chorus and her role as Co-Founder of ChoirFest Middle East. This dual perspective continues to inform her work across genres.
Joanna studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London and was Organ Scholar at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, pursuing composition studies with Richard Blackford and Judith Bingham. She is Lead Mentor for the Professional Development Programme for Composers at the National Youth Choir, and her music is widely recorded, with releases on labels including Signum and recent collaborations with the Choir of St John's College, Cambridge, and Chanticleer.
Find more information about Joanna Marsh in the Press Pack below.
