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Electra Perivolaris (b.1996) is a composer and pianist from Scotland of mixed British and Greek heritage, described as ‘A Classical Star of the Future’ by BBC Introducing and ‘One of a new generation of female trailblazers’ by BBC Radio 3. Her music draws inspiration from her mixed Scottish and Greek island heritages, focusing on the natural world as a fragile living organism and engaging with natural processes from her home on the Scottish Isle of Arran and from her family’s roots on the Greek Aegean island of Chios. Recent commissions have included works for the London Sinfonietta, BBC Singers, BBC Concert Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra Composers’ Hub. Electra has been awarded the Young Classical Artists Trust 2024-2025 Composer Fellowship in its inaugural year, composing new Wigmore Hall commissions for YCAT performers.
Recent premieres include two performances in the Queen Elizabeth Hall of commissions composed for the BBC Concert Orchestra, one of which was the culmination of Electra's work with Streetwise Opera, creating an opera in collaboration with The Magpie Project, a homeless shelter for women and children in East London. As Associate Composer for The Carice Singers, Electra’s new commission for the choir was premiered in the Holst 150 celebrations at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square on the 18th April 2024. Electra’s recent commission, 'A Winged Woman', for The Marian Consort vocal ensemble is the titular track on their album with the Linn Records label, released in November 2023. Electra was a 2022-2023 Royal Philharmonic Society Composer and received a joint RPS/ Presteigne Festival Commission to compose a new work for string orchestra, premiered at the Presteigne Festival in August 2023. Reviewing Electra’s piece in Musical Opinion, critic Paul Conway wrote that it ‘served notice of a fresh, original and questing musical voice’.
Following success in the BBC Young Composers Competition 2014, Electra was chosen to represent her generation of young female composers in a new commission for BBC Radio 3, as part of the ‘Seven Ages of Woman’ BBC Singers commission for International Women’s Day 2020 and was commissioned by BBC Radio 3 to compose a piece for the BBC Concert Orchestra. She was profiled as ‘One to Watch in 2022’ by The Scotsman newspaper and was described by BBC Radio 3’s Verity Sharp as representing ‘a new generation of female trailblazers’, following a broadcast of Electra's music on ‘Late Junction’. She was selected by BBC Radio 3 as 'one of 11 inspiring female composers from past to present', alongside composers such as Meredith Monk. Electra’s music has been described by ‘The Scotsman’ as ‘striking and sure-handed..elusive and mercurial’. Sir James MacMillan CBE has described her as 'one of the most exciting young composers emerging in Scotland today’ and Electra’s recent commission from the Aurora Orchestra was described as ‘a beautiful musical image of Wordsworthian pantheism, created by a razor-sharp musical imagination’ by Ivan Hewett in ‘The Telegraph’.
In 2021 Electra graduated with Distinction from a Masters degree in Composition at London's Royal Academy of Music on the MMus Composition course, with further studies in piano, after being awarded an RAM Trust Scholarship, a grant from the Scottish International Education Trust and a Vaughan Williams Bursary Award from the RVW Trust. She was awarded the Diploma of the Royal Academy of Music Award in Composition for an Outstanding Final Portfolio, as well as the Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music Award. In July 2019, she graduated with Double First Class Honours from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, as a BMus Joint Honours student of Composition and Piano, winning the Patron's Fund Prize (Royal College of Music) for Composition, as well as receiving an Endorsement in Music Education with Distinction. Whilst at the RCS she won the Walter and Dinah Wolfe Composition Award and was awarded the ABRSM Macklin Bursary for Piano Performance. She was awarded both Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music and Conservatoire Scholarships. Electra was awarded a 2021-2022 Royal Academy of Music Fellowship working as a composer with Open Academy, the Community and Participation department. Last year she began a Doctor of Philosophy in Composition at the University of Oxford, generously supported by Magdalen College’s Leon E and Iris L Beghian Graduate Scholarship. She won the University of Oxford Henfrey Prize for Composition earlier this year.
Electra has worked as Ambassador for the BBC Young Composer scheme and enjoys working with children and young people to inspire them with the creative possibilities of music. She has worked on multiple education projects, helping to lead and motivate large groups of children to compose and perform music. She has twice worked alongside musicians from the BBC Symphony Orchestra at their ‘Total Immersion’ weekends, helping to deliver workshops for over 50 children from a diverse range of backgrounds to create pieces of music which were performed at the Barbican centre. She is committed to community music projects and to working with diverse groups of society to increase access to music for more people, not just as audience members but also as active participants in the creative process. She trained with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra as part of their Connect programme, developing skills as an animateur and delivering creative music workshops across primary and secondary schools in Glasgow and has been trained with the charity, musicALL, at Hazelwood school in Glasgow, delivering inclusive music classes for children with complex disabilities and sensory impairments. She holds an Endorsement in Music Education with Distinction from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, following a year of placements leading creative music workshops in primary schools. Electra has been involved as a composer in Wigmore Hall Learning projects centred around the links between music and wellbeing for those living with dementia, as well as with Glyndebourne Opera as part of their ‘Raise Your Voice’ project for people living with dementia. Last year she worked with the City of London Sinfonia on their ‘Sound Young Minds’ project, delivering creative music and composition based workshops for young people in psychiatric units at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge, the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and the Bethlem and Maudsley Hospitals. In 2022, Electra received a London Sinfonietta/Live Music Now/Theatre of Sound co-commission, working with families living with dementia to create a new opera which told their stories, exploring music and memory. It was performed in November 2022 at London’s Stone Nest Theatre and was featured on BBC Radio 3’s ‘Music Matters’.
Recent premieres include two performances in the Queen Elizabeth Hall of commissions composed for the BBC Concert Orchestra, one of which was the culmination of Electra's work with Streetwise Opera, creating an opera in collaboration with The Magpie Project, a homeless shelter for women and children in East London. As Associate Composer for The Carice Singers, Electra’s new commission for the choir was premiered in the Holst 150 celebrations at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square on the 18th April 2024. Electra’s recent commission, 'A Winged Woman', for The Marian Consort vocal ensemble is the titular track on their album with the Linn Records label, released in November 2023. Electra was a 2022-2023 Royal Philharmonic Society Composer and received a joint RPS/ Presteigne Festival Commission to compose a new work for string orchestra, premiered at the Presteigne Festival in August 2023. Reviewing Electra’s piece in Musical Opinion, critic Paul Conway wrote that it ‘served notice of a fresh, original and questing musical voice’.
Following success in the BBC Young Composers Competition 2014, Electra was chosen to represent her generation of young female composers in a new commission for BBC Radio 3, as part of the ‘Seven Ages of Woman’ BBC Singers commission for International Women’s Day 2020 and was commissioned by BBC Radio 3 to compose a piece for the BBC Concert Orchestra. She was profiled as ‘One to Watch in 2022’ by The Scotsman newspaper and was described by BBC Radio 3’s Verity Sharp as representing ‘a new generation of female trailblazers’, following a broadcast of Electra's music on ‘Late Junction’. She was selected by BBC Radio 3 as 'one of 11 inspiring female composers from past to present', alongside composers such as Meredith Monk. Electra’s music has been described by ‘The Scotsman’ as ‘striking and sure-handed..elusive and mercurial’. Sir James MacMillan CBE has described her as 'one of the most exciting young composers emerging in Scotland today’ and Electra’s recent commission from the Aurora Orchestra was described as ‘a beautiful musical image of Wordsworthian pantheism, created by a razor-sharp musical imagination’ by Ivan Hewett in ‘The Telegraph’.
In 2021 Electra graduated with Distinction from a Masters degree in Composition at London's Royal Academy of Music on the MMus Composition course, with further studies in piano, after being awarded an RAM Trust Scholarship, a grant from the Scottish International Education Trust and a Vaughan Williams Bursary Award from the RVW Trust. She was awarded the Diploma of the Royal Academy of Music Award in Composition for an Outstanding Final Portfolio, as well as the Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music Award. In July 2019, she graduated with Double First Class Honours from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, as a BMus Joint Honours student of Composition and Piano, winning the Patron's Fund Prize (Royal College of Music) for Composition, as well as receiving an Endorsement in Music Education with Distinction. Whilst at the RCS she won the Walter and Dinah Wolfe Composition Award and was awarded the ABRSM Macklin Bursary for Piano Performance. She was awarded both Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music and Conservatoire Scholarships. Electra was awarded a 2021-2022 Royal Academy of Music Fellowship working as a composer with Open Academy, the Community and Participation department. Last year she began a Doctor of Philosophy in Composition at the University of Oxford, generously supported by Magdalen College’s Leon E and Iris L Beghian Graduate Scholarship. She won the University of Oxford Henfrey Prize for Composition earlier this year.
Electra has worked as Ambassador for the BBC Young Composer scheme and enjoys working with children and young people to inspire them with the creative possibilities of music. She has worked on multiple education projects, helping to lead and motivate large groups of children to compose and perform music. She has twice worked alongside musicians from the BBC Symphony Orchestra at their ‘Total Immersion’ weekends, helping to deliver workshops for over 50 children from a diverse range of backgrounds to create pieces of music which were performed at the Barbican centre. She is committed to community music projects and to working with diverse groups of society to increase access to music for more people, not just as audience members but also as active participants in the creative process. She trained with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra as part of their Connect programme, developing skills as an animateur and delivering creative music workshops across primary and secondary schools in Glasgow and has been trained with the charity, musicALL, at Hazelwood school in Glasgow, delivering inclusive music classes for children with complex disabilities and sensory impairments. She holds an Endorsement in Music Education with Distinction from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, following a year of placements leading creative music workshops in primary schools. Electra has been involved as a composer in Wigmore Hall Learning projects centred around the links between music and wellbeing for those living with dementia, as well as with Glyndebourne Opera as part of their ‘Raise Your Voice’ project for people living with dementia. Last year she worked with the City of London Sinfonia on their ‘Sound Young Minds’ project, delivering creative music and composition based workshops for young people in psychiatric units at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge, the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and the Bethlem and Maudsley Hospitals. In 2022, Electra received a London Sinfonietta/Live Music Now/Theatre of Sound co-commission, working with families living with dementia to create a new opera which told their stories, exploring music and memory. It was performed in November 2022 at London’s Stone Nest Theatre and was featured on BBC Radio 3’s ‘Music Matters’.
