b. Cyprus, 1989
Spare, patient, and unadorned — music built from a single idea worked hard rather than a wide palette worked lightly. Repetition does the structural work that development would normally carry, so the music feels controlled and inevitable rather than eventful. The harmonic language moves and turns unpredictably, but the discipline is austere: one pattern, pressed on until it holds the whole thing up. Restraint is a dominant impression, occasionally broken by a note or a gesture allowed to cut through the control. Running under all of it is a melancholy that never resolves cleanly, giving even the calmest passages an unsettled undertow.
I compose for theatre, concert platform, and the spaces in between. My work has been performed at Tête à Tête Opera Festival, Wandsworth Arts Fringe, internationally including Cyprus. I’m currently developing Hidden Star, a new opera about the forgotten astronomer Annie Walker.
I am based in Kent.
In 2025, together with Listen!, we brought Hidden Star – The Story of Annie Walker to Tête à Tête: Opera Festival 2025 in London. This was a work in progress performance and it received very positive comments.
In September 2023, I made On Being Vocal with Canadian soprano Sarah Parkin and filmmaker Catherine Valve. It was reviewed in Planet Hugill and later developed and performed at Wandsworth Arts Fringe in 2024. It was funded by Arts Council England.
In 2022 I produced Stories, Odes, and Chants — a melodrama weaving poems by living Cypriot poets with my own music, performed across three cities with support from the Cultural Services of the Ministry of Education and the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation..
Other works: Statue of the Earth, commissioned by singer-violist Katherine Clarke, rooted in the ancient Greek goddess Hestia. Tillein, for solo percussion, performed at PASIC in Indianapolis — a piece about trichotillomania, written from the inside. I’ve also composed for short film and gaming apps.
I studied at the Ionian University of Corfu and the University of York, where I worked under Prof. Thomas Simaku.
If something here resonates — get in touch.
Other musical ventures
She has composed for short film, gaming apps, and animated video.
Instruments
Piano | Saxophone | Harpsichord
Copyright © Rania Chrysostomou 2026