• Florence Anna Maunders

    Composer

     

    "...energised, rough-edged juxtapositions..." - The Guardian

     

    "...an enjoyably furious mélange..." - The Telegraph

     

    "...a wonderful crescendo of just outright queer orchestration..." - Robert Timestra

     

    "...super-cool rhythm – biting and progressive..." - Anna Edwards

     

    "...mere words cannot describe the vibrant orchestration [or] the inventive choral writing..." - Fiona Bennett (on Yaldo) 

  • About

    Information about multiple-international-award-winning Florence Anna Maunders & her career

    Biography

    Florence Anna Maunders started to compose music when she was a teenager, and her early tape-based pieces from this time reveal an early fascination with the unusual juxtapositions of sounds and collisions of styles which have been a hallmark of her music-making ever since. This is perhaps a reflection of the music which interested and excited her from a very young age – medieval dance music, prog-rock, electronic minimalism, bebop jazz, Eastern folk music, the music of Stravinsky & Messiaen, and the grand orchestral tradition of the European concert hall. Flori started out young, as a chorister, clarinetist and saxophone player, but following an undergraduate degree at the Royal Northern College of Music, where she studied with Anthony Gilbert, Adam Gorb, Simon Holt & Clark Rundell, she's enjoyed a mixed and international career as a jazz pianist, orchestral percussionist, vocalist arranger, electronic music producer and teacher. Since 2018 she's had a bit of a radical transformation of her self and her career, and returned to composition as a main artistic focus, winning a series of awards & competitions, and with her music performed across the UK, Europe, the USA and the rest of the world - performances and collaborations with leading ensembles, orchestras and soloists.

     

    Flori is very grateful for the assistance she's received from Help Musicians UK

  • Awards

    Selection of recent prizes and awards

    Philharmonia Composers' Academy (2023)

    Selected to work with the Philharmonia for a year, including creating a new 10-minute work

    Tredegar Town Band (2023)

    Selected to create a new work for and with Tredegar Town Band and Vale of Glamorgan Festival

    Mirari Brass Quintet Call For Scores (2022)

    1st prizewinner

    Khemia Ensemble Prize (2022)

    Joint 1st prizewinner & commissioned to write for the ensemble

    Royal Philharmonic Society Prize (2022)

    Prizewinner

    Mid Wales Strings - call for scores (2022)

    Selected from call for scores to work with MWS

    Uitgast Festival Prize (2022)

    1st prizewinner

    Third Coast Percussion Currents Creative Partner (2022-23)

    Commissioned to create a new piece for/with Third Coast Percussion

    London Chamber Orchestra "LCO New" (2022)

    Selected as one of the 2022 cohort to compose a new work for the orchestra

    Flourish! Commission (2022)

    Commissioned to compose a new work for BGSO through BCMG's project for the Commonwealth Games

    Drake Music Ascendant Commission (2022)

    Commissioned to write a new work in 2022

    Black Pencil Prize (2021)

    Finalist - Honourable Mention

    International Guitar Federation (2021)

    Commissioned to write a new piece for solo guitar

    LGBTViola Competition (2021)

    First Prize Winner

    Villiers Quartet "From Home" Commissions (2021)

    Commissioned to write for the quartet

    Hypotenuse Trio Call For Scores (2020)

    Selected to be commissioned to write a new piece

    ORA Singers Emergency Composers' Fund (2020)

    Selected and commissioned to write a new piece in collaboration with Tate Modern

    Adopt A Music Creator (2020-21)

    Selected to work with Fulham Brass Band

    Psappha "Composing for..." Scheme (2020)

    Selected on the 'cello & piano scheme

    Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize (2020)

    Shortlisted Finalist

    Diversity Initiative Call for Scores (2020)

    1st Prize (Quartet) 1st Prize (Septet) Honorable Mention (Duet) Overall Grand Prize Winner

    A4 Brass Quartet Composition Competition (2020)

    Shortlisted Finalist

    Brixworth International Composition Competition (2020)

    1st Place Winner

    Women's Orchestra of Arizona Composition Prize (2020)

    1st Place Winner

    London Consorts of Winds Competition (2020)

    Shortlisted Finalist & Runner-up

    Prix Annelie de Man 2020

    Finalist

    Black Pencil Prize 2020

    Honorable Mention

    Musica Prospettiva 2019-2020 - International Call for Scores

    Finalist

    International Isolda Composition Foundation London (2019)

    Shortlisted & Finalist

    Filipino American Symphony Orchestra Composition Competition (2019)

    2nd Prize

    Piano Teachers Congress of New York (PTCNY) Commissioning Award (2018)

    Commissioning award for a new piece to be performed in Carnegie Hall (NYC) in Fall 2020

    Royal Northern Symphonia Young Composers' Competition (2018)

    Finalist & 2nd prizewinner

    ARmusic Publishing House Award (2018)

    "Khosk Im Vordum" (Words From My Mother) - a piece for solo (spoken) soprano & double-reed quartet to be published by ARMusic

    2018 AGBU Sayat Nova International Composition Competition

    3rd prize for Khosk Im Vordun (Words from My Mother) - a piece for solo (spoken) soprano & double-reed quartet

    Bromley Symphony Orchestra Centenary Prize (2018)

    Orchestra's choice prizewinner

    Vienna "Sounds of Matter" (2018)

    2nd prizewinner

  • Selection of Work

    A selection of recent and historical performances

    "Not Getting Out"

    Exciting new string quartet piece in a fabulous performance by the Villers Quartet who commissioned it as part of their "From Home" series

    "Either Everything Is Or Nothing Is"

    Exciting & dramatic duet for 'cello & piano in a fantastic performance by Ben Powell & Jen Langridge

    "Desert Spaces"

    Created for and performed by Black Pencil Ensemble at Orgelpark Amsterdam as part of the Prix Annelli De Mann

    "Transmission I"

     

    Brass sextet performed by the members of The Brass Project NYC

    "Fleeting Images"

    Wind Quintet for players of the Moonlight Symphony Orchestra

    "Badder Gyrations"

    Performed by the Royal Northern Sinfonia at The Sage Gateshead

    "Nest/Mound"

    Duet for piano and percussion performed by the GBSR Duo as part of the Vale of Glamorgan Festval 2020

    "Bacchanal"

    For large orchestra - played by Bromley Symphony Orchestra conducted by Adrian Brown

    "Kraken II"

    Live performance from The Anvil, Basingstoke, performed by Clifton Band, conducted by Ben Copeman, and narrated by Neil Streeter.

    "Breathelated Spirits"

    Quirky track from the album Jazzsteppin' - available on Bandcamp (click link to buy)

    "...and This Machine Was Their God"

    Trio for clarinet, 'cello & percussion (2018) based on the writings of Karl Marx, jazz & post-minimalism.

    "Chain Growth"

    2nd Prize winner at the 2018 "Sounds of Matter" competition in Vienna

    "Symphonia Concertante"

    Large work for 'cello & orchestra performed by Nicholas Trygstadt with the RNCMSO, conducted by Stuart Stratford.

  • Listening Links

    Listen to commercial releases through Spotify & Bandcamp

  • Buy My Music! 

    Easily downloadable high-quality PDF files, including full performance rights

    Florence Anna Maunders - Nest Mound - Piano & Percussion

    Florence Anna Maunders - Nest Mound - Piano & Percussion

    A short and funky duet for piano and percussion (2 cowbells, 2 wood blocks, 2 temple blocks & 2 bongos)
    Purchasing this score also includes full public and private performing rights, and recording for non-commercial purposes.
    Coming soon
    Florence Anna Maunders - Not Getting Out - String Quartet

    Florence Anna Maunders - Not Getting Out - String Quartet

    A single, fast, driving and rhymically exciting movement for string quartet. Commissioned by the Villiers Quartet. Available on Resonus Classics.

    This is a purchasable PDF of the score and parts, formatted ready for printing. This purchase also includes full performance rights and the right to record the music for non-profitable purposes.
    Coming soon
    Florence Anna Maunders - Badder Gyrations - Small Orchestra

    Florence Anna Maunders - Badder Gyrations - Small Orchestra

    Badder Gyrations is a riotous celebration of underground and urban dance rhythms, as seen though the eyes (or perhaps heard through the ears) of a composer brought up in a rather different tradition. Mutant funk rubs up alongside distorted dubstep and drum 'n' bass, stretching and morphing into new, uncomfortable forms. This RNS prize-winning composition falls into three sections, a firmly grinding opening, which almost feels like a heavy 2-step, a seriously syncopated jazz-funk-influenced central section, featuring interwoven woodwind solos, and a final, massively unsubtle, stomping rhythmic coda.

    Scored for a small orchestra - pairs of woodwind, horns and trumpets, with timpani and strings - an ideal companion to "Uprising"

    Orchestra - 1(+picc).1(+cor).1(+bclt).1(+cbsn) - 2.2.0.0 - timp - strings. Duration ca. 5mins 30sec

    The download includes a full score, parts in PDF format and full permissions to perform in concert and to record for non-commercial uses
    Coming soon
    Florence Anna Maunders - Uprising - Small Orchestra

    Florence Anna Maunders - Uprising - Small Orchestra

    This piece was a commission from Skipton Camerata - the professional orchestra for the Yorkshire Dales.

    Picc.Flt.Ob.EngHn.Clt.BClt.Bsn.Cbsn(or Bsn 2) - 2Hns - Timp - Strings

    The download includes a full score, parts, and program notes, all formatted ready to print and play. By purchasing you also gain full rights to perform this work live and to record for non-commercial purposes.

    There are two main kinds of “uprising” in this piece – a direct exploration of the concept of musical lines rising upwards, with a sense of yearning upward ambition in the lines, and also the idea of a popular or political uprising, a struggle for supremacy, a call to action. In this relentless & breathless orchestral showpiece, every section of the orchestra is in a constant kaleidoscopic whirl of action, which starts energetically and doesn't let up until the very final and abrupt conclusion.
    Coming soon
    Tree Songs - Percussion Quartet

    Tree Songs - Percussion Quartet

    An exciting and extensive composition for a wide selection of wooden percussion instruments, commissioned and premiered by the wonderful Third Coast Percussion. The four movements are I:Roots, II:Trunks, III:Leaves and IV:Fruiting & Flowering, each of which captures a different mood and groove. The total duration of the piece is around 14 minutes. Instrument list available by request.
    Coming soon
    Florence Anna Maunders - Dendroforms - Open Scoring

    Florence Anna Maunders - Dendroforms - Open Scoring

    This is a a set of pieces based on natural shapes created by trees. The graphic scores were made from manipulated photography of images of trees, and images made from trees - paintings made with natural materials, bark rubbings and collages. Originally premiered as a complete cycle by Northern Contemporary Collective in 2018, selections have since been performed worldwide and recorded by leading ensembles and soloists.

    This downloadable PDF includes all 25 Dendroforms (I-XXV) in a large A3 high-resolution colour format, as well as full permissions to perform the music and to print and project the images as part of that performance. It also allows for recording a performance for non-commercial purposes (please contact me if you want to create and release a commercial recording)
    Coming soon
    ...And This Machine Was Their God - Clarinet, 'Cello & Percussion

    ...And This Machine Was Their God - Clarinet, 'Cello & Percussion

    The words of Karl Marx, written in 1867, seem almost prophetic, from our viewpoint in the early 21st Century. Marx's vision is of a world in which industrialisation and mechanisation are the new religions, where serving a machine is a form of worship and factory smoke is clouds of incense. We saw this happen, and saw it taken to an extreme both in the capitalist West, where the mechanical was (and still is?) worshipped as a source of wealth, and in the socialist East, where industry + labour itself took on a mythical, heroic status. But we now live in perhaps what is best described as a postindustrial world – factories sit empty or are redeveloped into housing or art galleries – where now is our mechanical deity? Could we still be enslaved to the machine/god's invisible successors? This trio depicts the machine as divine – a vast indifferent god that exists to consume and to produce. The idiom is post-minimalist, in that repetition of small cells occurs, but they are continually recombined and juxtaposed in new combinations and syncopated unisons. A kind of mechanical jazz develops, ecstatically dancing. Clouds of smoke rise like incense, and gong stokes ring out.
    Coming soon
    Florence Anna Maunders - Galactic Hallucination - Flute, Oboe & Bb Clarinet

    Florence Anna Maunders - Galactic Hallucination - Flute, Oboe & Bb Clarinet

    This piece was commissioned by The Arc Project as part of a collaboration with artist Desmond Clarke. The music is inspired by his artwork. The sounds of the flute, oboe and clarinet create intricate, repetitive, but disintegrating structures, floating in space, focusing on a central point, and then dissolving into a new form. The music is full of post-minimalist micro-variation and explores the act of creation through a focus on extended woodwind techniques. This is a challenging, but approachable piece for advanced players with a duration of ca. 11 minutes, which is a good introduction to some contemporary performance techniques.

    The download includes a complete score and set of parts with program and performance notes. Additionally, when purchasing this score you will also receive full performance rights for this piece, and the right to record for personal, competition, reference or other non-commercial uses.
    Coming soon
    Florence Anna Maunders - Galactic Hallucination - Flute, Bb Clarinet & Bassoon

    Florence Anna Maunders - Galactic Hallucination - Flute, Bb Clarinet & Bassoon

    This piece was commissioned by The Arc Project as part of a collaboration with artist Desmond Clarke. The music is inspired by his artwork. The sounds of the flute, clarinet & bassoon create intricate, repetitive, but disintegrating structures, floating in space, focusing on a central point, and then dissolving into a new form. The music is full of post-minimalist micro-variation and explores the act of creation through a focus on extended woodwind techniques. This is a challenging, but approachable piece for advanced players with a duration of ca. 11 minutes, which is a good introduction to some contemporary performance techniques.

    The download includes a complete score and set of parts with program and performance notes. Additionally, when purchasing this score you will also receive full performance rights for this piece, and the right to record for personal, competition, reference or other non-commercial uses.
    Coming soon
    Florence Anna Maunders - Within Reasonable Limits - Euphonium & Tuba Duet

    Florence Anna Maunders - Within Reasonable Limits - Euphonium & Tuba Duet

    This is a short (4+ mins), quirky & curious duet for euphonium & tuba.

    This download includes a full score, program notes, parts for performers (including alternative transpositions for euphonium), complete in person/online/streaming performance rights & the right to record for non-commercial use.

    This piece is based on the development of a small motive within reasonable limits – and the motivic material itself is constructed within the reasonable limit of a single whole-tone hexachord and its only transposition. The two instruments work initially together or as a solo line, then independently within each section. The 2nd & 4th sections explore calm mirroring, as if prowling around within a set cage or boundary, while in the central section, the two instruments explore flights of fancy with some exuberance, this energy is short-lived.
    Coming soon
    Florence Anna Maunders - Take Back - Solo Bass (or Contrabass) Recorder

    Florence Anna Maunders - Take Back - Solo Bass (or Contrabass) Recorder

    1 reviews
    The title can refer to the idea of regretting doing or saying something, and wanting to take it back, to undo what has occurred, to reset and begin again. The phrase can also reference the concept of reclaiming or taking back something that was once possessed and should now be returned to our possession, for example the idea of taking back the streets or taking back power. In this exciting and compressed composition for solo recorder, the music continually takes phrases back into circulation from earlier parts of the piece, transforming them each time, as if reclaiming or recycling the material and bending it to a new purpose.

    The download includes a complete score with programme and performance notes. Please contact the composer ahead of any public performance of this piece for permissions.
    Coming soon
    Florence Anna Maunders - Methylphenidate - Clarinet, Alto Saxophone & Trumpet

    Florence Anna Maunders - Methylphenidate - Clarinet, Alto Saxophone & Trumpet

    This is a short (just over 3 minutes), aggressive and hard-hitting trio commissioned by Hypotenuse Trio in 2021

    This download includes the complete score, parts for all instruments, permission to perform the piece and permission to record for non-commercial uses.

    This is an unrelenting and exciting blast of high-energy music, intercut with the frantic rhythms and pulsations of contemporary drum 'n' bass. There's an excellent recording on YouTube from the commissioning group.

    Coming soon
    Florence Anna Maunders - Black Ants/Red Ants - Solo Bass Flute

    Florence Anna Maunders - Black Ants/Red Ants - Solo Bass Flute

    This 5-6 minute long piece was written for the flautist Ruth Morley, who gave the first performance.

    The download includes a full score, full permission to perform in concert and permission to record for non-commercial uses.

    In this piece two very contrasting types of music are allowed to collide. As the piece progresses, the "spiky music" becomes more condensed and frantic, while the "lyrical music" is allowed more and more space and freedom. You can imagine this as a musical depiction of a "battle for survival" between two different colonies of ants.

    Coming soon
    Florence Anna Maunders - Desert Places - Solo Bass Flute

    Florence Anna Maunders - Desert Places - Solo Bass Flute

    This 5-6 minute long piece was written for the flautist Carla Rees, who gave the first performance.

    The download includes a full score, programme notes, a multiphonics guide, full permission to perform in concert and permission to record for non-commercial uses.

    It explores two of my great compositional obsessions – jazz harmony and the traditional music of the Middle East – particularly Persian music. The two main types of musical material in this piece are the meditative aalap sections in unmeasured time, which form a series of “musical breaths”, which alternate with some more rhythmical (perhaps even slightly percussive) passages which develop the 10/8 rhythm of the janiman – probably the least common of the traditional Persian dance rhythms. In the slower sections much of the melodic material borrows from the closely related Arabic tradition, in particular the tuning of the maqam hijaz, but also explores the versatility of the bass flute in creating multiphonics which match closely the idiosyncratic tuning of this scale. The more groove-based sections sound distinctly funky in places, with 9th-based harmonic patterns and semiquaver syncopations abounding.
    Coming soon
    Florence Anna Maunders - So Many F******g Ants

    Florence Anna Maunders - So Many F******g Ants

    This is my piece So Many F******g Ants for a brass quartet of 2 trumpets & 2 trombones.

    This is an exciting piece, full of contrast between rhythmical and lyrical sections, with a duration of approximately 8.5 minutes.

    The PDF file contains performance notes, a full score and a complete set of parts. Alternate brass transpositions and arrangements may be available on request. Additionally, when purchasing this score you'll also receive individual performance rights for this piece, and the right to record for personal, competition, reference or other non-commercial uses.
    Coming soon
    Transmission II (brass septet)

    Transmission II (brass septet)

    This is my piece Transmission II for a brass septet of 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, horn, euphonium and tuba.

    This is a pulsating and exciting piece suitable for moderately advanced players, with a duration of approximately 8 minutes.

    The PDF file contains performance notes, a full score and a complete set of parts. Alternate brass transpositions and arrangements may be available on request. Additionally, when purchasing this score you'll also receive individual performance rights for this piece, and the right to record for personal, competition, reference or other non-commercial uses.
    Coming soon
    Florence Anna Maunders - Transmission I (brass sextet)

    Florence Anna Maunders - Transmission I (brass sextet)

    This is my piece Transmission I for a brass sextet of 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, horn and tuba.

    This is a pulsating and exciting piece suitable for moderately advanced players, with a duration of approximately 3 minutes.

    The PDF file contains performance notes, a full score and a complete set of parts. Alternate brass transpositions and arrangements may be available on request. Additionally, when purchasing this score you'll also receive individual performance rights for this piece, and the right to record for personal, competition, reference or other non-commercial uses.
    Coming soon
    Florence Anna Maunders - Fleeting Images (wind quintet)

    Florence Anna Maunders - Fleeting Images (wind quintet)

    This is a printable PDF of the score, parts and performance notes of my piece "Fleeting Images" for a Wind Quintet of flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and horn. The piece is about 4 and half minutes long, and a video performance is available to watch on YouTube or on this site.

    When purchasing this score you'll also receive individual/group/ensemble performance rights for this piece, and the right to record for personal, competition, reference or other non-commercial uses. Please get in touch if you want to program this in a concert (I'd like to know - it's exciting!)
    Coming soon
    Florence Anna Maunders - Alone Again (solo euphonium)

    Florence Anna Maunders - Alone Again (solo euphonium)

    This is my piece Alone Again for solo euphonium.

    This is an expressive solo piece suitable for advanced players, with a duration of approximately 3m45s.

    The PDF file contains performance notes and the music for both B flat treble clef euphonium and C bass clef euphonium. When purchasing this score you'll also receive individual performance rights for this piece, and the right to record for personal, competition, reference or other non-commercial uses.
    Coming soon
  • Education 

    Royal Northern College Of Music

    BMus(hons) GRNCM PPRNCM

    Composition

    University Of Reading

    PGCE

    Secondary Music

    Birmingham City University

    Listen Imagine Compose MTL/MEL

    Masters in Education/Musical Leadership

  • Discography

    Click links to listen to & buy these recordings

    None Of Them Are Ever Coming Back

    On the compilation I hope this finds you well in these strange times – Vol. 4 on the Nonclassical label

    Your Dog

    On the compilation Feed The Hound performed by Sarah Watts & Jon Iles

    Not Getting Out

    On the compilation From Home performed by the Villiers Quartet

    Goliath:

    An opera

    On the compilation Stencils performed by Strange Trace Opera

    Harbingers of Change:

    EP

    5-track EP of original compositions from the HoC collective available on Bandcamp

  • Press/Media

    (Long) Interview in Prxludes magazine Sept 2023

    Article in 4 Bars Rest Jan 2023

    Interview with 4BarsRest Aug 2022

    Article on LCO website June 2022

    Article from Skipton Camerata Feb 2022

    Interview with Villiers Quartet Oct 2021

    Article from International Guitar Federation Jul 2021

    Feature with ORA Singers Dec 2020

    Article in 4-Bars-Rest October 2020

    Interview on Jazz South UK Sept 2020

    From "100 Days of Social Listening"

    Interview and performance of collaboration with PRISM Ensemble July 2020

    Video Interview with The Diversity Initiative Jun 2020

    Page on Help Musicians UK Jun 2020

    Article in South London Press Mar 2020

    Article on Planet Hugill Mar 2020

    Article in Diapason (French) Feb 2020

    Article in "Slipped Disc" Feb 2020

    Article in Piano Teachers Congress of New York Jan 2020

    Article in AGBU Jan 2019

    Instagram Post Dec 2019

    Review in Newbury Weekly News Dec 2018

    Article in Newbury Weekly News Dec 2018

  • Monthly Music Blog

    Premieres, Commissions, Prizes, Performances and Concerts

    May 31, 2021
    Much of May seems to have been taken up with preparing and getting ready. Preparing students for...
    February 28, 2021
    A lot of my composing time this month has been dedicated to creating the soundtrack for Robert...
    This is the third part of a blog series I'm writing about the process of creating an opera as a...
    January 26, 2021
    The first month of 2021, and we were all hoping for a new, fresh start - but instead it looks...
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