CHRIS KIRKHAM

How did you get into composition?
I got into it through improvisation. I began improvising almost as soon as I began playing instruments, and have never stopped - it remains a source of great joy for me, and is the main way I generate ideas for my music.

At some point I began writing down interesting parts of my improvisations. As a teenager, I began making electronic music on a pirated copy of FL Studio, and later I began writing notated music in earnest.

What sort of music do you like to write?
I try to write music with a sense of immediacy, and with a strong emotional pull; my music tends to come from an intuitive place rather than an intellectual one. I was raised on a diet of alt rock, folk, and weird experimental electronic stuff, and, although I have since come to feel somewhat at home with classical music, I am still in my own work constantly trying to channel the raw emotion, vitality, and spirit of experimentalism of the music I grew up with.

What excites you the most about being part of Opus 1?
The opportunity to workshop music with highly skilled and open-minded professional musicians, and to share ideas with my fellow composers and programme mentors.

What 3 pieces of music would you have on a desert island?
Alopecia by Why?
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel
Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares by the Bulgarian State Radio & Television Female Vocal Choir

What is the best snack?
Peanut butter straight from the jar. I am not a fancy person.

Chris Kirkham is a Newcastle-born, London-based composer, currently studying for an MMus in Composition at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance under Stephen Montague and Laura Jurd. Chris’s music draws from a diverse set of influences including early music, folk song, and electronica. In 2023, he received an honourable mention from Hollie Harding for the foxes on the hill barked clear and cold, a collaboration with composer Jamie Elless; in 2024, he won the John Halford competition for his piano piece Apotropaic Marks.