JAMIE SMITH
composer
About
British composer Jamie Smith is currently studying his undergraduate degree at the Royal College of Music. As part of the BBC Proms 2024, in collaboration with the UCL’s Biome Health Project, he was commissioned to write for the BBC Concert Orchestra, drawing inspiration from artist Luke Jerram’s ‘Gaia’ —a replica of our planet created using detailed NASA imagery of the Earth’s surface. In 2023, he was awarded BBC Young Composer of the Year for his piece Into Oblivion for voice and electronics.
In 2024, Jamie was commissioned to write for “Commonwealth @75” an event celebrating the seminal publication on the history and future of the Commonwealth, as part of its 75th year. He also conducted and curated the musical programme alongside the commission, which was premiered at Cloister’s Hall, Westminster Abbey.
“My practice is community and connection focussed, to create the conditions for alive and engaging musical experiences”
Recent Work
Approaching for Chamber Ensemble creates a sonic landscape both alien and strangely familiar. Built on unsettled rhythmic cycles in the strings, the ensemble pulses with quiet urgency, shifting from unresolved stillness to upheaval. Breath-like murmurs expand into immersive bodies of sound that distort and morph into climactic confrontations that feel both inevitable and unresolved.
As part of a series of works, Transformations for Tuba and piano, written for Nathan Mansell, transports the listener into a calm, grounded, yetlively and profound sound world. Unfolding from breath to full bodied warm-ups, the sustained piano interacts closely with the tuba’s gestures, establishing the rich harmonic landscape. I hope to encourage the performer to focus on the quality of the tuba’s sound and to prepare them for more technically demanding repertoire in their programme.
Migration for Alto Sax and Bass Trombone explores the idea of a small bird undertaking an impossibly perilous journey towards its destination. Tentative, expressive, and whimsical as well as calm, grounded, and resonant, I hope to enable virtuosic freedom and close interaction between the musicians for unique and individual performance.
Teaching
British composer Jamie Smith is currently studying his undergraduate degree at the Royal College of Music. As part of the BBC Proms 2024, in collaboration with the UCL’s Biome Health Project, he was commissioned to write for the BBC Concert Orchestra, drawing inspiration from artist Luke Jerram’s ‘Gaia’ —a replica of our planet created using detailed NASA imagery of the Earth’s surface. In 2023, he was awarded BBC Young Composer of the Year for his piece Into Oblivion for voice and electronics.
In 2024, Jamie was commissioned to write for “Commonwealth @75” an event celebrating the seminal publication on the history and future of the Commonwealth, as part of its 75th year. He also conducted and curated the musical programme alongside the commission, which was premiered at Cloister’s Hall, Westminster Abbey.
Go Compose!
British composer Jamie Smith is currently studying his undergraduate degree at the Royal College of Music. As part of the BBC Proms 2024, in collaboration with the UCL’s Biome Health Project, he was commissioned to write for the BBC Concert Orchestra, drawing inspiration from artist Luke Jerram’s ‘Gaia’ —a replica of our planet created using detailed NASA imagery of the Earth’s surface. In 2023, he was awarded BBC Young Composer of the Year for his piece Into Oblivion for voice and electronics.
In 2024, Jamie was commissioned to write for “Commonwealth @75” an event celebrating the seminal publication on the history and future of the Commonwealth, as part of its 75th year. He also conducted and curated the musical programme alongside the commission, which was premiered at Cloister’s Hall, Westminster Abbey.
