Annabel Kershaw is a Scottish composer, musician and music educator.

 

Growing up in Aberdeenshire, she trained in composition at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London with Diana Burrell between 2000 and 2005.  As a younger composer, her early works were performed at London’s South Bank as part of the Park Lane Young Composer’s Symposium - Morning Star, Evening Star commissioned by the Barbican Trio. The Wigmore Hall - Little Robin Red Vest, a community and outreach commission to set the children’s book by author Jan Fearnley, and the Aldeburgh Festival - Haiku’s on the beach performed on Aldeburgh beach by the Ipswich Community Choir.  Over this time, she also scored music for theatre including a production of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, directed by Janet Suzman and composed for short films through collaborations with visual artists from the Royal College of Art.

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On graduating, Annabel quickly gravitated to working as a musician within education and community settings, devising and delivering music and cross arts education projects for a range of organisations including Roundhouse Studios / Dance Umbrella (Deep and Beneath) The Architecture Foundation / London Festival, Creative Partnerships, The Deveron Festival and Youth Music Initiative. To deepen her work within community settings, Annabel trained and subsequently worked professionally as a music therapist for a number of years, before returning her focus to educational work in her role as a teaching musician with Sistema Scotland in 2014. 

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In February 2022, Annabel attended a residency hosted by New Music Scotland for composers who have experienced a career break. This significant year marked a return to her creative practice after having a family, which included work as an improvisor with long term collaborator, bassist Emma Smith in the critically acclaimed Take On Mingus as part of Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival, and a commission from the Sound Festival to write a new piece for chamber choir through the soundcreators scheme.  Solar Licht, a setting of Doric poetry by Sheena Blackhall, was premiered by the Con Anima Chamber Choir and conducted by James Weeks as part of Sound Festival 2022.

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In December 2023 Annabel was awarded funding from the Creative Scotland Open Fund for Individuals for her first large scale work as lead artist. Co-commissioned by the Sound Festival, The Mariner’s Daughter combined elements of fieldwork interviews and new music to bring focus to the intergenerational experiences of women connected to the North Sea. Scored for a new quintet (accordion, soprano saxophone, bass clarinet, cello and viola) and recorded voices, The Mariner’s Daughter was premiered in September 2024 at Findhorn Bay Festival and toured coastal venues around the Northeast of Scotland as part of Sound Festival 2024. The Mariner’s Daughter was also included within a radio feature on Deutschland Radio, receiving radio play on Deutschlandfunk in December 2024.

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Annabel’s current projects include ongoing work as a teaching artist on NYOS LAB with the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland, and forthcoming work with StAMP ABRSM Creating Creative Composition, to develop and support approaches to teaching composition within primary school classrooms.  She is currently writing a podcast version of The Mariner’s Daughter with planned release later in 2025.