About Gabrielle

Master of Compostion at The Royal College of Music, with a Bachelors of Music from King's College London. My final year Undergraduate courses were in Advanced Composition and Advanced Vocal Studies. I have 14 years of piano experience, achieving grade 8 in both piano studies and vocal performance some years ago. Since then, I have been training as a composer, whilst studying musical history from various landscapes and cultures.

Grapheme-Colour, Chromesthesia, Spatial-Sequence Synaesthesia and Number-Form Synaesthesia are present throughout my compositions. I write music based on a natural, overwhelming colour scheme and structural form that appears in my mind. For example, ‘Night Circus’ was set in purple and burgundy, inspired by the landscape of Schoenberg’s, ‘Pierrot Lunaire’. I was inspired by his strong imagery of the moon, death, violence and nature, with surreal and avant-garde figures. I often compose in response to paintings or visuals, pulling music from the tone of a painting. Rather than using specific key signatures; colour palettes, imagery and intuition help to direct my tonal choices. Recently, I wrote a piece called ‘Puppet Nuit’, based on a painting by Egon Schiele entitled ‘Cardinal & Nun’ to bring an angular, awkward and intimate quality to the piece. I based my tonality on the dark red and green hues. I feel my synaesthesia is a constant, unique tool in my composition process.

I have studied vocals and piano throughout my education, completing my degree at King’s College London with an Advanced Performance Recital in Singing, a First-Class portfolio of Composition and an overall grade of 2:1. This year, I will resume piano studies and hope to achieve my ABRSM Dip / LRSM grade. I enjoy portraying intense imagery in music, such as romance, lust and death, winter, night and turmoil. Recently, I have explored themes of the unreal i.e., fairytales, puppetry, the circus, folkore and witchcraft: “Music can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable” – Leonard Bernstein. My practice in jazz singing has taught me useful improvisation skills, too.

I can't wait to share my knowledge and skillsets with you! I have a passion for sharing music and I'm excited to explore the world of sound in our lessons!