Life as a London classical music composer

By way of introduction, I am Shirley Ly, a classical music composer born in London, UK with Chinese and Vietnamese heritage. I've lived in London all of my life! Here's just a short blog post about my life as a London classical music composer.

London classical music composer

London classical music composer, Shirley Ly

I feel very lucky to live in London - it's really the place to be for music lovers! When I finish my day job in financial services, I find myself with plenty of musical options - I can go to a dazzling concert hall and listen to grand orchestral works by Tchaikovsky, sit and ponder over some bittersweet pop music, relax with some smooth jazz, dance to passionate Latin music, vibe to dreamy melodic techno and more. As a composer, I draw many influences from different types of music and there's definitely no shortage of musical influences in London! It is so easy to be able to connect with many musicians focusing on different genres.

London's classical music scene is world-class and there's so much talent in the city. This is partly due to the fact that the world's top music schools are in this city. I rarely struggle to find musicians who would be available to record or perform with me, also on request at last minute! Though it's rare to struggle to find musicians, one challenge is matching with their availability... lots of projects including overseas projects mean that availability isn't always consistent. I am also pretty selective with who I choose to work with.

There are plenty of recording studios here in London, ranging from very affordable ones (I use the amazing Hackney Road Studios) to the renowned ones like Abbey Road (I do hope to be able to record there one day). All dependent on your budget! I just prefer to stick to the same studio engineer as they are accustomed to how I work already and how I prefer things to be done. I am very pedantic with mixing for example and can spend hours and hours mixing a piece.

There are many venues available who would let you perform there for free, particularly churches, mostly at lunchtimes. Note that some venues are stricter than others in terms of the programme of music that they allow you to play, and I've been told that my original classical music compositions do not align with a venue's music requirements many times - never mind, I just move on. If you have more of a budget then you can look into hiring grander venues... I organised a concert to showcase my new album 9 Lives about cats recently at the Old Royal Naval College - the experience of performing there was just incredible. I typically don't organise very many concerts like these just because of cost involved - I don't tend to charge for my concerts as want to achieve greater accessibility of audience members.

Yes, London can be hectic and very busy (the commute to work is not stress-free in the mornings), and I find myself in constant battle with the fast-paced ways of life. Getting away from London, particularly to places surrounded by nature helps, and such breaks bring me closer to earth. The breaks also provide me with lots of musical inspiration, then I think back to these when I come back to London to compose. As a composer, the most important thing I find is making sure I have time and the mental headspace to do composing. I tend to work around my day job, and spend most evenings on weekdays composing or the whole of weekends where I stay up till early hours of the morning with limited sleep. On 1 - 2 weeks prior to recording music, I would not arrange any social plans. When it's too much in a day to do composing (because work was hectic), I just don't do it.

Note that I am not a full-time composer and therefore do not know what life is like as a full-time classical composer in London. London is super expensive to live in, costs of living are constantly going up and I can imagine that it would be difficult if I did not have another role. I feel very fortunate to be able to compose music as an escape, rather than as necessity. I see the activity as therapeutic and relaxing, rather than something I have to do to make a living. I can be as free as I want to pursue my own projects and have more creative control as I'm independent. I don't enter competitions as I don't associate music with competing.

I constantly get asked if I want to be a full-time composer but I just don't see how I can be in reality in this world... in respect of my compositions, I just get paid so little compared to the huge amount of cost incurred on hiring musicians, recording the music in the studio, performing the music and marketing the music, which I mainly use social media for. Spotify pays artists negligible amounts for streams - like £50 per 20,000 streams. I've looked into producing music for commercial purposes like ads and earning from licencing but I just don't want to - I just want that full creative control in respect of compositions. I feel fortunate that I have a day job which enables me to compose like no one is watching.

I hope you enjoyed my insights. I actually wrote a piece about London called London Strive which aims to encapsulate my vision of London. 'A grey fog casts across London's cityscape - rain pattering and wind hissing. Despite this, we strive as in this city, there is full of opportunity.' Feel free to check out, and you can download using the below link too.

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