Riley Notes

There is a magic to music and it has intrigued me my whole life. I love this magic, but I also feel the need to explain music in clear and direct ways. I guess that this duality also exists in the music I compose.

I love to write about what I do. Writing about creativity and about the daily reality of being a composer is something I think people are interested in. I’m often asked for example how I get my ideas, or how an idea in my head transforms into a performance on stage. I enjoy discussing ways that creativity might be taught and what the relationship between music and nature might be. All this writing also helps me understand myself a bit more.

Riley Notes is a blog I have been writing since January 2013. Some of the blogs found their way into my first book called Composing a Concerto for Two Cellos in 2017. I write about one blog a month.

Interested?

If you are interested to know more about the nuts and bolts of my compositional process, the ups and downs of acceptance and rejection, my approaches to teaching, how my music connects from the natural world, and what makes me tick in general, then please subscribe now to my Substack page. Please also consider being one of my Music Patrons

My scores are available from my publisher Composers Edition and specifically my orchestral works.

My recordings are available from my label Squeaky Kate Records and Spotify

My curatorial and collaborative work is done through Sonic Collaborations and my teaching and research via Brunel University London