Helen Grime MBE, composer

Who or what are the most significant influences on your musical life and career as a composer?

It’s hard to say exactly what the most significant influences on my musical life are – many influences are subconscious, I think. Firstly, the music education I was very lucky to receive in Scotland, at the City of Edinburgh Music School and later at St Mary’s Music School, underpins everything. Without this and opportunities with the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland and with organisations such as Edinburgh Contemporary Arts Trust (ECAT), who workshopped my very first pieces, it’s impossible to imagine my life as a composer. I feel sure that without this kind of education my career might have taken a very different path; I might not have become a composer at all. As a child beginning to compose in Scotland, it was greatly inspiring to have my first lessons with Sally Beamish and to become aware of figures such as Judith Weir. These experiences made anything seem possible.

Later on, I feel greatly indebted to my teachers at the Royal College of Music: Edwin Roxburgh and Julian Anderson. Julian introduced me to the music of Oliver Knussen and this was a kind of lightbulb moment for me. I was enchanted, beguiled and transported by his music and this was the moment that I knew I genuinely wanted to be a composer. It was especially important to me to have the support of Oliver Knussen as a friend and a mentor as well as conducting and commissioning my music. That has had a profound influence on me which continues to this day.

Every performer or performance and rehearsal of my music that I attend shapes my musical language and has immense importance for the direction of new work and ideas. I feel incredibly lucky to have worked with some of the greatest musicians of our time.

What have been the greatest challenges of your career so far?

To keep the belief and focus in what I am doing no matter what else is going on. To be open and aware but also intently single-minded and to keep this going with each new piece!

Sometimes writing a large work can seem quite overwhelming, and regenerating and building new pathways requires a lot of energy.

What are the special challenges/pleasures of working on a commissioned piece?

Depending on how much of a brief there is, I find that having the new challenges of a particular group of instruments or a subject matter or soloist I haven’t written for, hugely rewarding and inspiring. This often opens up new creative possibilities and directions I might not otherwise have thought of. A challenge can be to keep my perceived expectations of a commissioner, performer or organisation at arm’s length and not becoming overwhelmed by the real or imagined pressure of an opportunity or high-profile performance/commission.

What are the special challenges/pleasures of working with particular musicians, singers, ensembles or orchestras?

Each work presents its own challenges, and this is something I choose to work with to shape the music. It might be working with the orchestra in a way that balances it quite differently or writing for instruments or combinations of instruments that I am less familiar with. I don’t write terribly quickly so I am careful that I can be as committed as possible to each new project and embrace these challenges fully.

Of which works are you most proud?

In general, I am most proud of what I am working on or pieces that are most recent, often because they realise most fully the ideas I have been working on over many years. At the time of writing this, I am in the very early stages of a new work so I would say my last large-scale work, Folk – [which was performed at the 2025 Aldeburgh Festival] – and perhaps my latest song cycle, Seasons.

How would you characterise your compositional language?

This is a question I always find difficult and I’m not sure the composer is always the best judge of this. With each new piece, my intent is to create a new sonic world distinct to that piece. I love to create different layers in my music, and I am often drawn to detail and long expressive lines as well as rich harmonies. Conciseness and clarity are particularly important to me, as is a clear and direct expressiveness that ideally is rewarded, and enriched, by further listening.

How do you work?

I spend a lot of time sketching – often words and ideas in notebooks. At this stage I am often very focused on formal ideas and large-scale structure. I tend to do a lot of related research, sometimes around an extra-musical inspiration, but sometimes spending much time looking at other music too. I then spend time sketching on manuscript paper. This part is often quite slow, forming and shaping ideas and materials until I feel ready to start organising them. I work between my keyboard and manuscript and at a certain point I also start drafting and editing ideas on the computer, moving back and forth between these three things.

As a musician, what is your definition of success?

To be asked to write music and to be lucky enough to have received wonderful performances from great musicians and groups that I am in awe of. This is a great privilege, and one that I would never take for granted.

What advice would you give to young/aspiring composers?

Keep going and try to embrace and make the most of every opportunity that comes your way. One can never tell in advance where something may lead or what connections or performances might be the most central to your music or career. You need to be mentally tough and play the long game. There will no doubt be many knocks along the way, but keeping self-belief is essential.

What do you feel needs to be done to grow classical music’s audiences?

Funding of music in schools and access to music for all young people. It is hugely dispiriting to see cuts of music services and music departments at universities. This disregard for music as an essential and vital part of our lives feels deeply wrong. I think it takes time and trust to build audiences, and this is different in every setting.

Quality in performance and music and diversity in programming are key. I think the great thing about the Aldeburgh Festival, since Britten’s time, is that it has always strived to put community at the heart of what it does.

What’s the one thing in the music industry we’re not talking about but you think we should be?

There’s been a lot of focus on diversity in recent years but one of the things that is gradually being eroded is provision of classical music in state schools and this has a direct effect on our industry.

This interview first appeared in the 2025 Aldeburgh Festival brochure

https://helengrime.com/