Hannah Kendall
Hannah Kendall (born 1984 in London) is a British composer currently based in New York. Background and career. Kendall grew up in Wembley, where her mother is the head teacher in a primary school. One of two children, her parents are originally from Guyana. Her grandfather was a jazz musician and her family stimulated her interest in the creative arts. Kendall attended the University of Exeter where she majored in vocal studies and composition, studying with Joe Duddell. She also gained a Masters at the Royal College of Music, studying with Kenneth Hesketh, as well as arts management  at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. In 2015, Kendall was noted as one of the "brilliant female composers under the age of 35". She featured on BBC Radio 3's "Composer of the Week". All five composers of the week were women and this was part of Radio 3's International Women's Day celebrations, which were highlighted in The Guardian. Also in 2015 Kendall won a 'Women of the Future Award' in the Arts and Culture category. Her one-man chamber opera "The Knife of Dawn", with a libretto by Tessa McWatt and based on the  incarceration of political activist Martin Carter in the then British Guiana in 1953 was premiered in 2016 at the Roundhouse. Her piece "The Spark Catchers" premiered at the BBC Proms in August 2017 and is inspired by the work of poet Lemn Sissay. The performance was released on CD by NMC in January 2020. Kendall returned to the Proms for the delayed first night of live music (due to the pandemic) on 28 August 2020 with the world premiere of "Tuxedo: Vasco 'de' Gama" for orchestra, inspired by the work of the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. Kendall has worked for  both the Barbican and London Music Masters charity in arts management roles. She is currently on the DMA (Doctor of Musical Arts) programme at Columbia University in New York as Dean's Fellow.