Freya Waley-Cohen
Described as ‘at once intimate and visionary’, Freya Waley-Cohen has been commissioned by ensembles including Los Angeles Philharmonic, BBC Proms, Wigmore Hall, Philharmonia Orchestra, and Britten Sinfonia. Spell Book, Waley-Cohen’s debut album, was released in 2024 on NMC Recordings and described by BBC Music Magazine as “sophisticated, contemporary and feminist – even quite confronting”.
Freya was asked about her experience of writing the commission:
“When I was writing Night Sky in a Stone, a memory kept surfacing of floating in a lake at night under the stars, the gentle rocking of the water around me and the dark green and silver of pine and silver birch trees lining the banks.
I was writing this far away from the lake and the clear night sky, at my desk in London. On my desk, I keep various small objects and musical instruments. One of them is a dark blue stone with white patterns in it, and while I was writing this piece, it struck me as being like a stone with the night sky inside.
The feeling of holding the stone in my hand also reminded me of the tactile nature of the guitar, with everything happening at the touch of the performer’s fingertips.
In the gentle rocking patterns of the opening, and the melodies that emerge as the piece goes on, I wrote in such a way as to leave as many strings ringing as possible, especially at key moments, so as to feel that contrast between touch and release.”
