LUCY RILEY

BIO

Lucy was born and educated in Sussex, England. She studied at the Royal College of Music in London with Kyle Horch, and graduated in 2002 with a BMus (Hons) During her time there, she won the Royal College of Music's 1998 Jane Melber Prize for Saxophonists, and reached the final of the 2000 Clarinet and Saxophone Society's Young Player of the Year Competition (for saxophone).

From 2001 - 2007 Lucy was the baritone saxophonist with the Tempest Saxophone Quartet, and performed throughout the U.K with them, in venues including: the Purcell Room, The National Gallery, Victoria and Albert Museum and Blackheath Halls. They won the Royal College of Music’s Wind Ensemble Prize in 2002, twice reached the finals of the Royal Overseas League Ensemble Competition, where they received the Elias Fawcett award for a young ensemble in 2003. They were also members of the young artist’s scheme Live Music Now! 

Lucy moved to Sweden in 2007, and later to Norway. During her time in Scandinavia, she has studied at Musikhögskolan i Piteå, and Kungliga Musikhögskolan, Stockholm. Lucy has performed recitals together with pianist Monica Tomescu-Rohde in venues such as the University of Oslo, (where they performed as part of Oslo Kulturnatt) and Union Scene, Drammen. She has given premieres of two works written for her by the Swedish composer Christofer Elgh, Laus - for solo soprano saxophone, first performed at the Scandinavian Saxophone Festival in Aarhus Denmark, and The Sun Rising - for alto saxophone, piano and soundtrack, which was premiered at the Kungliga Akademien för de fria konsterna, Stockholm.

Lucy plays soprano saxophonist with Tetris Saxofonkvartett, and performs regularly with them in the Drammen/Buskerud area of Norway. Recent performances with them include concerts at Lier Kulturscene, an appearance on TV2's 'Nabolaget' and a concert in the Halvorsen salong of Drammens teater as part of the Johan Halvorsen concert series. Here the quartet performed a program of entirely Scandinavian repertoire entitled ‘Nordisk Lys’ and gave the premiere of a new work by the Norwegian composer Arild Jensen.

In the autumn of 2016 Lucy spent six weeks in Umeå, Sweden, performing with NorrlandsOperans Symfoniorkester in Norrlandsoperans production of the Kurt Weill opera Mahagonny. More recently in March 2017 Lucy gave a performance of 'Laus' by Christofer Elgh as part of the Swedish classical/contemporary music festival 'Svensk Musikvår.