Kate Whitley - About

Being a BBT winner has given me the bravery to carry on taking my own path in music. It is a massive honour to be included in such an amazing list of musicians! BBT has been an inspiration and has given me the support and confidence needed to pursue the huge challenges of making a career as a classical musician.

British composer, pianist and producer, Kate Whitley co-founded the Multi-Story Orchestra in 2011. Rewriting the rules of classical music, not least by performing at Bold Tendencies, a Peckham car park turned into a performance space, Kate’s modus operandi – taking music to the people – continues to make a big impact. Her collaborations with Multi-Story Young Creatives to make new work relevant to performers and audiences alike, tours throughout the UK. No wonder The Times claimed she was one of a “bold new breed.”

Kate’s BBT award enabled her to purchase and renovate a piano, rent rehearsal space and have new photographs taken. Creatively BBT also supported Kate’s debut disc for NMC, a showcase for a selection of her compositions. As well as being the title of this album, I Am I Say is also the name of a choral work for primary school children about the human destruction of our planet, one that features on the CD along with Kate’s Viola Concerto and a number of other chamber and instrumental works. Kate appeared in BBT’s Wednesdays at Wilton’s series, both as pianist and composer, and she contributed to BBT’s film Is the Concert Hall Enough?

BBT supported the composing of three further works, a chamber piece and two large-scale works, all of them premiered in London in collaboration with Multi-Story Orchestra. The last of them, Verified, was directly commissioned by BBT’s Community Grants scheme from Multi-Story’s Young Creatives for the opening of the Trust’s 20th anniversary weekend of events and conveyed a powerful message about the impact of social media on young people.

For a current biography please visit katewhitley.net

Read a blog by Kate, A little me time, here

Press Releases: I Am I Say / Our Future in Your Hands / BBT 20th Anniversary – Verified

Photographs by Simon Weir and Multi-Story Orchestra