%20Marika%20Kochiashvili.jpg&w=3840&q=75 "William Marsey, photo by Marika Kochiashvili")
“music of emotion and expressiveness”
William Marsey is a UK-based composer. His compositions have been described as "vivid", "somewhat unsettling", and "very attractive and rewarding", and have been commissioned and performed internationally, including commissions from LA Phil and BBC Arts, and performances by ensembles like The Hallé orchestra and Royal Northern Sinfonia.
“distinctive, and strangely touching”
His music has been performed and exhibited across the UK, USA, Canada, and Europe, and he was nominated for a British Composer Award in 2018, and an Ivor Novello Composers award in 2023. His collaborations include composing for players like Lars Vogt, Liam Byrne, Huw Watkins, and Lawrence Power, and conductors Oliver Knussen and Thomas Adès.
Marsey's collaborations also extend beyond the music world to choreographers, photographers, and filmmakers. Notable projects include work with the Hofesh Shechter Company, photographer Torbjørn Rødland, and an immersive audio play / exhibition with sculptor Josie Spencer and writer Polly Wiseman. His latest ventures have been a binaural audio + video project with filmmaker Antonia Luxem and Shadwell Opera, and music written for a video work by Anna Ridler, exhibited in Times Square, New York.
“an intriguing yet strange work, and somewhat disturbing”
“vividly portrayed... a gem”
Marsey's music can be found on his own albums, the debut disc of the Solem Quartet, and recently in Oliver Zeffman's Music x Museums series. His most recent recording is Removal and Other Powers a song released on Delphian Records in October 2023.
Born in Hartlepool, County Durham, Marsey studied composition with Giles Swayne at the University of Cambridge, with Gary Carpenter and Edmund Finnis at the Royal Academy of Music, and with Laurence Crane and Richard Baker at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.