On her earliest musical memory
One of Freya’s earliest memories is sitting, aged just two, in her older sister's bedroom watching her practice the violin. Freya was fascinated and kept asking when she could start. ‘That’s the first memory I have of wanting to make music’ she says. Freya began playing the violin at three and the piano at five. By eight, her piano teacher encouraged her love for improvisation, and her mother noticed that she preferred creating music over practicing. At 11, Freya attended the Walden School, a composition-focused summer program, which deepened her interest in composing.
On her career journey
Freya took her undergraduate degree at Cambridge University and co-founded a concert series called ‘Listenpony’ with two other composers, Josephine Stevenson and William Marzi. This project turned into a 10-year-long series, commissioning new works and releasing them on a record label. The very first concert led to Freya’s first professional commission.
After Cambridge, Freya attended the Academy, where her focus on composition became clearer. She studied with Simon Bainbridge for her master’s and decided to stay for a PhD to continue developing as a composer. ‘I loved being a part of the Composition department; the spirit of the department felt really special and creative and inspiring, so I wanted to stick around and do my PhD.’
For her PhD, Freya worked on a unique project at Snape Maltings, where she created an architectural structure to house a piece of music and composed music specifically for the structure. This hadn’t been done in quite that way before, making it an ideal project for her research.
Oliver Knussen was Freya’s main teacher for her PhD, which Freya recalls was ‘the most incredible privilege to be his student and spend that time with him.’ By the end of her PhD, Freya’s career had gained some momentum: Freya became Associate Composer at Wigmore Hall and received commissions from the Los Angeles Philharmonic, BBC Proms and others.
After finishing her PhD the pandemic hit, but she continued composing, including writing an opera for the Academy’s 200th anniversary. Since then, Freya has been busy with various commissions and projects, and her work continues to evolve. Freya’s career path remains ongoing, with new opportunities each year. ‘I’ve been able to keep writing and keep being a composer since then’.
On her Academy training
Freya states that training at the Academy, with mentors including Simon Bainbridge, Oliver Knussen and Philip Cashian, was crucial to her career. ‘They are always there in my psyche,’ Freya maintains. ‘It was a place that improved my confidence as a composer and made me believe in myself and my music, which made a huge difference.’ The hands-on projects were invaluable, allowing Freya to work with world-class musicians and learn to produce scores on time. The Academy also introduced her to amazing peers and musicians, some of whom she has worked with professionally, like the Chroma Ensemble. Writing her first opera, Witch, was a huge milestone, and the Academy's support in that project was a turning point in Freya’s career. ‘It was amazing to get to do that in a place like the Academy where I felt so at home, but also very creative. The Academy has been massive for my career.’
On a project she’s particularly proud of
While writing each piece, Freya feels the most proud of each one while she’s writing it, and tries to treat each piece as the last. Some works do stand out to her, like her architectural project Permutations and the song cycle Spellbook which began as a 12-minute commission and gradually expanded into a 45-minute cycle. It took almost five years to complete, with the full cycle premiered at the Barbican that year. There were further performances at Wigmore Hall, the Longborough Festival Opera, and its recent release on NMC. It was also performed in New York in December 2024, marking Freya’s New York debut. ‘It’s had this amazing journey and I feel very proud of that. It’s a little bit of recency bias, but Spellbook is the one on my mind at the moment.’
On what’s next
Freya is currently finishing the final edits on a 10-minute piece for the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, which will be premiered in March at Queen Elizabeth Hall. It’s her first time writing for period instruments ‘which is quite a new thing for me’ Freya says, and she is excited to be part of a project with three other composers, including Errollyn Wallen and Electra Perivolaris. Freya’s piece Mother Tongue, written for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, was broadcast on 6 January.
In terms of upcoming projects, Freya has a piece co-commissioned by the Stockholm Philharmonic, which will have its European premiere in March. She has also written a percussion quartet for Colin Curry and the Colin Curry Quartet, co-commissioned by Wigmore Hall and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. It had its London premiere in February 2024 and will be part of the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival this summer.
Freya’s advice for young composers
Freya’s advice for young composers is to stay resilient. The path can be complicated, especially with less funding available in the current climate, but if you’re passionate about composing, Freya’s advice is to keep going even when things seem really difficult. ‘You’ve got to be doing it because you feel there’s something meaningful beyond the moments of applause or excitement of getting a commission, you’ve got to have some sort of internal drive’. Freya recommends making your own path by finding musicians who connect with your work and fostering those musical connections. ‘Work out exactly what it is that you could do that no one else could do and make that happen in whatever way you can.’