Biography
English composer Kate Whitley earned recognition in her twenties through original compositions whose performances she supported by means of an inventive, self-reliant method frequently labeled a do-it-yourself ethic. Born in 1989, she studied piano as a child yet perceived no link between the classical sphere she entered and the pop and electronic dance music that filled her daily surroundings. Admission to selective piano programs introduced her to other adolescents who shared her enthusiasm for classical music, even as the genre stayed foreign to her ordinary circle of friends. Resolved to close this divide, she was already singled out by the Times of London as part of "a bold new breed" before she completed her degree at Cambridge University in 2011. A few months after graduation she joined Christopher Stark in founding the Multi-Story Orchestra, an ensemble that made its home and presented concerts inside a disused parking garage in the Peckham district of southeast London. Grants from the Sky Academy Futures Fund in 2013 and the Borletti-Buitoni Trust in 2014 broadened the reach of her music, yet she continued to favor non-traditional spaces, working with the Rambert Dance Company as Music Fellow in 2013–2014 and serving as New Music Programmer at the Kettles Yard Art Gallery in 2015. Several notable pieces for children’s choir followed; one of them, Alive, received the British Composers Award in 2015. She explained her interest to BBC Music Magazine by invoking Benjamin Britten: "I've always been inspired by Britten's use of young people as performers, as singers or players. Noye's Fludde has an amazing integration of professional and young performers. That's always an inspiration." Further scores for young performers included the opera Paws and Padlocks, which depicts two children locked inside a zoo overnight. Her debut album, I Am I Say, appeared on the NMC label in 2017; although its title work is scored for children, the remainder consists of abstract chamber music. Other projects that year included Speak Out, a setting of the 2013 United Nations speech by Pakistani education activist and Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai. Whitley lives in South London.
Albums
