b. Cyprus, 1989
Music has always just been. Not something I came to, not something I chose — it was already there, already part of how I make sense of being alive. The earliest version I can name is singing along to film scores as a child and feeling, for a few minutes, transcendent. That feeling is still what I’m after — in every piece I write.
I make music with my whole body. It starts somewhere physical — a rhythm, a sensation, a pressure — before it becomes notes on a page. My roots are in Cyprus, but I’ve been equally shaped by jazz, folk, Balkan music, opera, rock, and film. None of these sit in separate rooms for me. They’ve always been one thing.
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.
If something here resonates — get in touch.
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 I’m proud of 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.
I am based in Kent.
Other musical ventures
She has composed for short film, gaming apps, and animated video.
Instruments
Piano | Saxophone | Harpsichord
Copyright © Rania Chrysostomou 2026