Cassie Kinoshi.jpg

Cassie Kinoshi is a Mercury Prize-nominated (2019) and Ivors Academy Award-winning (2018) Berlin/London-based composer, arranger and alto-saxophonist with a focus on creating multidisciplinary and genre-blending performance work across contemporary classical music, jazz/improvised music, film, television and visual-art contexts. As a bandleader, she writes for and performs with her eleven-piece ensemble seed., featuring many of London’s leading improvising musicians. She is a composition graduate of Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, where she studied with Andrew Poppy and Stephen Montague.

An in-demand composer for contemporary dance, theatre, film and visual art, her production credits include Park Avenue Armory NYC (Euphoria), National Theatre (Top Girls, dir. Carolyn Churchill), the Globe Theatre (The Tempest, dir. Sean Holmes), BalletBoyz (England on Fire, Bradley 4:18) and the Southbank Centre (The Nutcracker, dir. Drew McConie). She has been commissioned by major orchestras and ensembles including the London Symphony Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, BBC Philharmonic, London Contemporary Orchestra, Chineke! Orchestra, The Ligeti Quartet, Manchester Camerata, Manchester Collective, GBSR Duo, the Detroit-based Sphinx Organization, and initiatives such as Renaud Capuçon’s Festival Nouveaux Horizons in Aix-en-Provence.

Cassie also currently holds a significant role as an Artist-in-Residence at the Southbank Centre (2025-2028), further expanding her ongoing relationship with the institution following multiple commissions and her broader commitment to cross-disciplinary collaboration, community engagement and experimental performance practice.

Her major commissions include work for BBC Radio 3 as part of 25 Commissions for 25 Years, as well as a specially created composition for BBC Ten Pieces (BBC Philharmonic), introducing young audiences and performers to contemporary orchestral sound worlds.

Driven by a deep interest in audio-visual and installation-based performance, Cassie served as Artist-in-Residence for the London Unwrapped Festival at King’s Place (2021). Her residency presented the world premiere of Three Suns Suite for Aurora Orchestra with members of seed., Synthesis - a curated night of forward-reaching London artists- and echo, an immersive installation co-created with Dutch visual artist Anne Verheij featuring electronic soundscapes, field recordings and members of Chineke! Orchestra.

Her 2023 commission gratitude, created with visuals by Birmingham & Belgrade-based artist GURIBOSH for members of the London Contemporary Orchestra, seed. and turntablist NikNak, premiered to a sold-out Purcell Room at the Southbank Centre. It was released on her 2024 album gratitude on Chicago-based label International Anthem.

Cassie is also an active film and TV composer. Her work spans short films, gallery installations and multidisciplinary media projects. Her screen credits include MUNA (BBC Film, dir. Warda Mohmed ) and serving as Composer’s Assistant to Matthew Herbert for Noughts & Crosses (Season 2, Episodes 1–4).

Education and outreach remain integral to her practice. She has led workshops, community ensembles and youth collaborations—including arrangements and direction for EFG London Jazz Festival’s She is Jazz: Womxn Make Music (2020–21). As part of her 2023 Southbank Centre commission, she led workshops for young musicians tied to the premiere of gratitude.

Upcoming

Cassie is currently writing new commissions for:

MANCHESTER COLLECTIVE | PATTERNS IN REPEAT

Premiere: June 2026, UK

https://manchestercollective.co.uk/patterns

SPHINX ORGANIZATION | SPHINX CONNECT

Premiere: January 2026, Detroit, USA

https://www.sphinxconnect.org/

Credits of Note / Awards

Concert Hall

  • HEART - London Symphony Orchestra × seed. (2024)

  • the colour of all things constant - BBC Philharmonic & Chetham’s School Choir (2024)

  • to the hibiscus - Rosie Bergonzi & Chineke! Orchestra (2024)

  • blue skies, bluer seas - Julia Bullock & Philharmonia Orchestra (2023)

  • gratitude - seed. × London Contemporary Orchestra × NikNak (Southbank Centre commission, 2023)

  • grey cloud - string quartet & piano (Renaud Capuçon’s Festival Nouveaux Horizons commission, 2022)

  • Solaristic Precepts - London Sinfonietta (2021)

  • Fanfares - London Symphony Orchestra Brass (2022)

  • Désordre: Sampled - Ligeti Quartet (2023)

Film, TV & Visual Art

  • MUNA - (short, BBC Film, dir. Warda Mohamed, 2023)

  • Leaving Ikorodu in 1999 - (short, BFI & Film4, dir. Rashida Seriki, 2024)

  • Deliverance - (short, BFI & Film4, dir. Bim Ajadi, 2025)

  • Noughts & Crosses - TV Series (Composer’s Assistant to Matthew Herbert, S2 E1–4)

  • Euphoria - Julian Rosefeldt, Park Avenue Armory NYC & EU Tour

  • Undercurrent - Anne Verheij (London Short Film Festival Best Experimental Film Nominee, 2018)

  • On An Empty Stomach — Anne Verheij (ICA Best Experimental Short Film Nominee, 2017)

Dance

  • FIFTEEN MINUTES - Maxine Doyle, Nederlands Dans Theater (2024)

  • England on Fire - BalletBoyz, Sadler’s Wells (2023)

  • The Nutcracker - Drew McConie Company, Southbank Centre (2023)

  • Bradley 4:18 - Maxine Doyle, BalletBoyz Deluxe Series, Sadler’s Wells (2019/2020)

  • YES - BalletBoyz short film (2020)

Theatre

  • The Tempest - The Globe Theatre (dir. Sean Holmes, 2022)

  • Top Girls - National Theatre (dir. Carolyn Churchill, 2019)

  • The Little Prince - adapted by Inua Ellams, Stratford Circus Arts Centre (dir. Femi Elufowoju jr, 2019/2020)

Awards & Nominations

  • Hyundai Mercury Prize Nominee (2019)

  • Paul Hamlyn Foundation Composer Award (2021)

  • National Dance Award Nominee 2024 - Outstanding Creative Contribution (BalletBoyz: England on Fire and Drew McConie’s The Nutcracker)

  • Jazz FM UK Jazz Act of the Year Nominee (2020)

  • Jazz FM Album of the Year Nominee (2020)

  • Jazz FM Breakthrough Act of the Year Winner (2019)

  • Ivors Academy Award Winner (2018, formerly British Composer Award) — Best Jazz Composition for Large Ensemble (Afronaut, SEED Ensemble)