Edmund Finnis is a “hugely gifted composer” (The Telegraph) whose music has been hailed as “magical” (The Times), “iridescent, compelling” (The Guardian), “exquisite” (Sara Mohr-Pietsch, BBC Radio 3) and “ethereally beautiful” (Herald Scotland). His works are regularly performed and broadcast, both at home in the UK and internationally.
Finnis’ multifaceted output ranges from intimate music for soloists and duets to immersive electronic pieces, music for film, ensemble music, choral pieces, and works for large orchestra.
He has written music for some of today’s leading instrumentalists (Víkingur Ólafsson, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Jess Gillam, Mark Simpson, Clare Hammond, Oliver Coates, Daniel Pioro), singers (Lucy Crowe, Ruby Hughes) and renowned ensembles such as Britten Sinfonia, BCMG and London Sinfonietta. Orchestras that have performed his works include the London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.
From 2013-16 Finnis was Composer-in-Association with the London Contemporary Orchestra. During this time they gave numerous performances of his works, including several new commissions premiered at The Roundhouse. The London Sinfonietta were also early supporters of his work. Since 2011 they have variously performed, toured and recorded six of his works, including four that they commissioned.
More recently Finnis has developed a close working relationship with Manchester Collective. After touring several of Finnis’ chamber works they commissioned The Centre is Everywhere, a piece for twelve string players. It was performed widely, including at the BBC Proms, and was released in 2021 as the title track of Manchester Collective’s debut album on the Bedroom Community label. This was followed by another album – Shades (2022) – of Finnis’ first two string quartets, and two further commissions: Out of the Dawn’s Mind (a song cycle setting poems by Alice Oswald) and Blue Divided by Blue (for choir, strings and percussion).
Other recent pieces include a series of solo works written for some of the most prominent musicians of the younger generation. Cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason has performed Preludes (2021) in solo recital tours of the USA and Europe. Pianist Víkingur Ólafsson gave the first performances of the piano cycle Mirror Images (2021) in London, Lucerne and Essen. And saxophonist Jess Gillam performed A Spiral Ascending (2020) in fifteen major concert halls across Europe as part of her ECHO Rising Stars tour.
Finnis studied at the Guildhall School with Julian Anderson and received a Leonard Bernstein Fellowship to study at Tanglewood. In 2012 he received a Paul Hamlyn Award, and in 2016 his violin concerto Shades Lengthen was shortlisted for an RPS Award. Since 2015 he has been a Professor of Composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
The Air, Turning – the first album of Finnis’ music – was released to critical acclaim in 2019, receiving the BBC Music Magazine Premiere Award. The EP Youth, a cycle of short piano pieces, was recorded by Clare Hammond and released by Pentatone in 2024. Other labels that have released Finnis’ music include Platoon, Decca, NMC, Delphian and LSO Live. Several of his pieces featured on the soundtrack to the Icelandic film Hvítur, Hvítur Dagur (A White, White Day) which premiered at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival.
His music is published by Schott Music.