Born and educated in Birmingham, England, Ruth Byrchmore graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in 1991, with an MMus in composition. In the same year, she became Parry Jerusalem Fellow & Composer-in-Residence at Wells Cathedral School, a post supported by the RVW Trust.

Ruth received a British Composer Award in December 2005, for the MBF St. Cecilia Day anthem A Birthday, performed in Westminster Abbey by the joint choirs of St. Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and Cathedral. Ruth is also the recipient of the 2004 RPS-Radio 3 Award for Education for her Katerina opera project with WNO.

Other commissions include  Baba Yaga, for Kent Opera, Ambrose the Green Hippopotamus, for the London Mozart Players, and Seven Little Monsters for the Wallace Collection. Her trombone concerto, Threads of Gold, was recently premiered in Birmingham Symphony Hall, and her Canticles, premiered in St. Paul’s Cathedral. Recent choral premieres include: Quem Pastores (December 2006) for the Worshipful Company of Musicians and Adam lay ybounden (December 2006) for the New Cambridge Singers.

Ruth is currently Head of Open Academy & Associate Head of Composition at the RAM. She also teaches in the Academic Studies Department.

Ruth’s work has been commissioned for performance internationally and nationally, and she has been broadcast on both BBC Radio 3 & 4. She is published by Chester-Novello and Faber, for whom she recently completed a new series of instrumental pieces.

Ruth is indebted to the developmental guidance she has received from Christopher Brown, John Casken and Judith Weir.