Colin Riley

I am a composer on Music Patron, a platform where people can learn more about how music comes to life, support composers directly and follow what we’re working on. For me, that kind of support makes a real difference — it gives me space to focus on the process of composing and also connect directly to my listeners. If you want to know more about it, check out the link below.

Colin Riley ‘doffs his cap to the contemporary classical genre but also manages to stand alone in that genre as a unique indie voice’ (BBC Radio).

My music draws on a range of elements including new technologies, improvisation, song-writing and large-scale classical form. It crosses many boundaries and I do a lot of collaborating.

I’ve just released two albums. A choral album Along The Line with Pegasus chamber choir features soloists Gabriella Swallow (cello) and Gloria Rappo (harp). The Year Round is an intimate collection of songs, one for each month, created for (and with) Melanie Pappenheim.

Imposrtant pieces include Warp and Weft a concerto for 2 cellos (Gabriella Swallow / Guy Johnston), Rock Paper Scissors (Ensemble Bash), Earth Voices (Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, Sweden), and his song cycle In Place. My large-scale multi-media orchestral piece Hearing Places was recently premiered by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales to excellent reviews. ‘Witty, inventive music of ear-tickling inventiveness’ (Daily Telegraph). I have also composed a huge body of piano music, some of which has just be released on Matthew Schellhorn’s new album Odd Sympathies.

My latest work is Broken Line (string quartet and fixed media) for the RIOT Ensemble, incorporating AI and the song of the blackbird.

Another album Ocean Songs is due out in the spring; a collaboration with lead singer of Goat Girl Lottie P. It features writer/activist George Monbiot and scientist/writer Helen Czerski, and one of several projects from my production company (with Violist Nic Pendlebury), Sonic Collaborations. I am also currently recording an album of chamber music ‘Ones Twos and Threes’ supported by the PRS for Music’s Composers Fund, the Hinrichsen Foundation and the Vaughan Williams Foundation

I am ‘Reader in Music’ at Brunel University, I run my own label Squeaky Kate and I write a regular blog about composing, teaching (and other things) called Riley Notes. I am also a member of the Place Collective.