Eleanor Alberga is a highly regarded British composer with commissions and premieres from the BBC Proms and The Royal Opera
Her work is noted for its emotional impact, depth of craft and brilliant colouring and orchestration.
Born and growing up in Jamaica, her cultural inheritance is wide including performing with the Jamaican Folk Singers and as a dancer with an African Dance company.
Coming to the UK initially on a scholarship to study piano and singing at the Royal Academy of Music, her compositional talents came to the fore whilst working in the contemporary dance world and she now boasts a rich catalogue of works in all genres: her Opera based on an Isabel Allende story, ‘Letters of a Love Betrayed’, drew comparison with Debussy’s Pelléas and Berg’s Wozzeck; three string quartets; a growing sequence of chamber music Nocturnes featuring horn and oboe, and orchestral music including two violin concertos and a rip-roaring adaptation of Roald Dahl’s ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ as well as her Last Night of the Proms opener ‘Arise Athena’. Her early piano music has a deep connection to her Jamaican heritage and there is music for solo voice and for choir.
Alberga now lives in the English countryside with her husband, the violinist Thomas Bowes, and together they have founded and nurtured an original festival - Arcadia.
Image Credit: Ben Ealovega