Alison Kay

Alison Kay, b. 1970, is a British composer.

Kay first studied composition with Tom Wilson and James Macmillan at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, continuing with Simon Bainbridge and Edwin Roxburgh at the Royal College of Music, where she won many of the major composition prizes. She completed a Masters degree at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Robert Saxton and has completed a doctorate at Sussex University under the supervision of Martin Butler. In 2004 she was appointed as a professor of composition at the Royal College of Music.

Kay's works are widely performed and broadcast and include music for orchestra, chamber ensemble, ballet, contemporary dance and chorus. Kay's compositions have been featured in performances by the BBC singers, Philharmonia Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, IXION, Lontano and Tacet Ensemble amongst others and at the Huddersfield, Spitalfields and Brighton Festivals. Recordings include Rat Race performed by the Composers Ensemble on the NMC label and Two piano études performed by Stephen Gutman. Notable performances have included Dragon a Brighton Festival commission for the Emperor Quartet and Leon MacCawley and Flux written for the New Music Players, played in the BMIC [...] Edge Series and subsequently broadcast on Radio 3. Future commissions include a collaborative classical/folk work with the Tacet Ensemble and John Spiers and John Boden, a series of piano études that will be recorded by Julian Jacobson and a clarinet and piano work for a CD by Steve Dummer and Yoko Ono.