Biography
“The match of emotion and intellect with highly skilful orchestration in Mason’s piece is a winning one. A most memorable work.”
Named as the 'Face to Watch' for Classical Music in The Times 2020 Calendar of the Arts, Grace-Evangeline Mason is a British composer of orchestral, chamber, choral, electronic and operatic music, described as a ‘supreme painter in sound’ [Seen and Heard International] and as having a ‘keen ear for musical texture - from dreamy hazes of electronic sound to sumptuous choral writing.’ [BBC] Mason creates ethereal sound-worlds often inspired by art, poetry and literature to take a listener on a narrative journey.
Her music has been performed by ensembles such as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia Lahti, Oslo Opera House's Operaorkestret, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, and the Aurora Orchestra, in venues across the UK and internationally, including European countries, USA, Canada, Japan, Australia and South Africa.
Her music has been performed at festivals such as the Cheltenham Music Festival, Southbank SoundState Festival, LFCCM, and MiTo SettembreMusica at Teatro Alla Scala. Her BBC Proms debut was in 2017 with her work 'RIVER' co-commissioned with BBC Radio 4's Front Row programme, followed by the premiere of her orchestral work ‘The Imagined Forest’ at the 2021 BBC Proms by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under Domingo Hindoyan, described as being ‘drawn with pen-and-ink precision and filled with vivid orchestral colour’ [The Times] and co-commissioned to mark the 150th anniversary of the Royal Albert Hall. Her most recent orchestral work 'ABLAZE THE MOON' was premiered by the BBC Philharmonic under Mark Wigglesworth at the BBC Proms in September 2023.
“A skilfully written, glistening score of delicacy and restraint”
Mason is the recipient of awards including BBC Young Composer of the Year (2013) and the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize (2018). She studied at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, where she has since been made an associate; Somerville College, Oxford; and the Royal Academy of Music, London, where she completed her doctorate.
Grace-Evangeline Mason's music is published by Boosey & Hawkes.
““Mason writes music as exquisite as her name, made of bright sounds that wheel round each other like colours in a kaleidoscope.””