Hannah Kendall

Hannah Kendall (born 1984 in London) is a British composer currently based in New York.[1]

Background and career

Kendall grew up in Wembley, where her mother is the head teacher in a primary school.[1] One of two children, her parents are originally from Guyana. Her grandfather was a jazz musician and her family stimulated her interest in the creative arts.[1] Kendall attended the University of Exeter where she majored in vocal studies and composition, studying with Joe Duddell. She also gained a Masters at the Royal College of Music, studying with Kenneth Hesketh, as well as arts management at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.[2]

In 2015, Kendall was noted as one of the "brilliant female composers under the age of 35".[3] She featured on BBC Radio 3's Composer of the Week.[4] All five composers of the week were women and this was part of Radio 3's International Women's Day celebrations, which were highlighted in The Guardian.[5] Also in 2015 Kendall won a 'Women of the Future Award' in the Arts and Culture category.[6]

Her one-man chamber opera The Knife of Dawn, with a libretto by Tessa McWatt and based on the incarceration of political activist Martin Carter in the then British Guiana in 1953 was premiered in 2016 at the Roundhouse.[7][8]

Her piece The Spark Catchers premiered at the BBC Proms in August 2017 and is inspired by the work of poet Lemn Sissay.[1] The performance was released on CD by NMC in January 2020.[9] Kendall returned to the Proms for the delayed first night of live music (due to the pandemic) on 28 August 2020 with the world premiere of Tuxedo: Vasco 'de' Gama for orchestra, inspired by the work of the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.[10]

Kendall has worked for both the Barbican and London Music Masters charity in arts management roles.[1] She is currently on the DMA (Doctor of Musical Arts) programme at Columbia University in New York as Dean's Fellow.[9]

Selected works

Orchestral and large ensemble works
  • Citygates (2011) (large ensemble)
  • Shard (2012)
  • Kanashibari (2013) (inspired by the experience of sleep paralysis)
  • The Great Dark (2013) (large ensemble)
  • The Spark Catchers (2017)
  • Baptistry (2018)
  • Disillusioned Dreamer (2018)
  • Verdala (2018) (large ensemble)
  • weaves flowers and leaves (2019)
  • Nexus (2020)
  • Tuxedo: Vasco 'de' Gama (2020)

Chamber and solo works

Choral works

Operas

References
  1. Maddocks, Fiona (20 August 2017). "Hannah Kendall: 'I'm a millennial composer! I have to make money to survive'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 20 August 2017.
  2. "Biography". Hannah Kendall homepage. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  3. "'You can't be a composer, you're a girl'. Radio 3 fights back". Telegraph. 10 March 2015. Retrieved 11 June 2016.
  4. "Composer of the Week". BBC. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  5. "Women composers: genius is gender blind – and so should we be". The Guardian. 5 March 2015. Retrieved 11 June 2016.
  6. "Women of the Future". Women of the Future. Retrieved 11 June 2016.
  7. "Hannah Kendall". Funding New Music. PRS for Music Foundation. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  8. "The Knife of Dawn". Hannah Kendall homepage. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  9. NMC Recordings: Hannah Kendall
  10. BBC Proms, 28 August 2020, Programme notes
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