Originally from Japan, Shiori Usui is a BBC Proms commissioned composer and improviser based in Scotland. The Times newspaper described her as a composer with 'entirely individual ears' after the successful premiere of the piece Liya-pyuwa at Wigmore Hall, London. Shiori has produced works in radical instrumental music, and has worked with motion capturing sensors and biophysical technology.
Many of her compositions are inspired by the sounds of the human body, the deep sea and other weird and wonderful organisms living on Earth. Shiori also creates work for and with disabled people such as a sensory theatre show in a hydro pool, using sound and music in water as the core materials.
Shiori has received numerous awards and fellowships, including the Toru Takemitsu Composition Award, the Civitella Ranieri Fellowship, a BBC SSO/Cove Park composer’s residency, a BCMG/SaM composer-in-residence, the SCO Connect Fellow funded by BBC Performing Arts, a Ricordi Lab publishing deal from Ricordi Berlin, the Award for Artists by Paul Hamlyn Foundation and a Scottish Award for New Music.
As a composer, Shiori has worked with numerous international ensembles and orchestras including BBC SSO conducted by Ilan Volkov, Collegium Novum Zurich conducted by Peter Rundel, Philharmonisches Orchester Cottbus conducted by Alexander Merzyn, and BCMG conducted by Martyn Brabbins.