Kate Whitley

Kate Whitley (born 1989) is an English composer and pianist.

She is classically trained and studied music at King's College, Cambridge.

Whitley co-founded the Multi-Story Orchestra with conductor Christopher Stark in 2011.

The orchestra's first performance was of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring in a car park in Peckham, London.

She won a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Special Award in 2014.

Her music has been broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 and performed as part of the BBC Proms.

The project won the 2016 Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award for Audiences and Engagement.

The orchestra also works with school children and local community groups.

Her music is recorded by NMC Recordings and her debut release, I am, I say was released in 2017.

It was described as "unpretentious and appealingly vigorous music" and "an excellent introduction to her sonic world".

In 2017, Whitley was commissioned by Radio 3 to compose a piece for International Women's Day, setting the words of Malala Yousafzai's 2013 speech to the UN.

The piece, called Speak Out, was premiered on 8 March 2017 in the Hoddinott Hall in Cardiff, with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Chorus of Wales alongside the children's choir Cor y Cwm, conducted by Xian Zhang.

Her concert piece Sky Dances, was commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra and performed in the summer of 2018 at Trafalgar Square.

Sir Simon Rattle conducted the LSO and 70 young musicians from East London.

The ballet Ignite, written for Birmingham Royal Ballet, toured the same year.

In July 2022 a new oratorio, Our Future In Your Hands was performed at the Buxton Festival, with an orchestra of young musicians from the Royal Northern College of Music and a choir drawn from local schools.

The text, by Laura Attridge, voices climate change concerns from the point of view of young people.