Harry Rees is a composer and pianist from County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland who is currently studying for an undergraduate degree in composition at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. They are currently in their final year, studying under Michael McCartney and Ceri Tippetts.

 

Harry has recently participated in Britten Sinfonia's Opus 1 programme – writing for piccolo, trombone, and harp - and has had their string trio, Ghosts of the Kaleidoscope, performed in the Penarth Chamber Music Festival by the Neary-Adams string trio. Harry has enjoyed having their String Quartet No. 2 workshopped by Sinfonia Cymru and Nachtmusik by The Hermes Experiment. More recently Harry's piece Nine Times to Die was shortlisted for the Composition: Wales 2025 scheme, run by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

 

Often inspired by extramusical influences such as birdsong and poetry, Harry’s electroacoustic and acousmatic music is centred around the concept of surprise and sudden change, creating vast and ever-shifting sonic spaces, while their notated music focuses on combining tonal and non-tonal elements, blended with timbral techniques and fluid rhythms to create a kaleidoscopic range of shifting instrumental colours.