Lynne Plowman

Lynne Plowman is a well-established composer and an experienced teacher and mentor. She has been a composition tutor at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama for twenty years, teaching undergraduate, postgraduate and junior students. Her compositions range from delicate instrumental solos to dramatic large-scale vocal, theatrical and orchestral works. Commissioners and collaborators include Welsh National Opera, Glyndebourne, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the London Mozart Players, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the BBC Singers.

Lynne’s expertise is in the field of notated composition, including instrumental, vocal, ensemble, orchestral, choral and operatic writing.

Lynne Plowman won a British Composer Award for her first opera, Gwyneth and the Green Knight, written for family audiences and described in the Times as ‘One of the most brilliantly accomplished new operas I have heard in many a year’. A further three operas were created, and equally well-received, in the following years, including commissions from Welsh National Opera and Glyndebourne.  

Lynne also enjoyed a fruitful partnership with the London Mozart Players. Commissions included a large-scale choral/orchestral work for Remembrance Day in Portsmouth Cathedral, Cries Like Silence, and an original film score to the classic silent film The Cabinet of Dr Caligari.

An Arts Council of Wales Creative Wales Award in 2012 supported the further development of Lynne’s orchestral writing. She refined and developed her working methods, mentored by Sir Harrison Birtwistle. The resulting orchestral work, Catching Shadows, was premiered by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. ‘The result is a thrilling muscularity and sureness of design.’ (Wales Arts Review).

In 2020, Prima Facie Records released The Beachcomber - an album of intimate solos and duos spanning twenty years of Lynne Plowman’s music, described as ‘a highly original and, through sensitive interpretations, immediately appealing and memorable production’ (Remy Franck, Pizzicato magazine).

Lynne’s most recent work has an international reach. French contemporary music group, Ensemble Télémaque, commissioned Clarion Call, for performances in and around Marseille in 2021. Most recently, Lynne travelled to the USA to work with The Merian Ensemble, members of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, on a new commission, Small World, premiered in Atlanta in March 2022.

In addition to her role at RWCMD, Lynne is also the resident composer for the pioneering Dyfed Young Composers scheme, which encourages and supports music composition in schools across West Wales.

In 2022, Lynne was awarded the Welsh Music Guild's prestigious Joseph Parry Award ‘for her exceptional contribution to musical education in Wales’.

Lynne Plowman’s music is published by Wise Music Classical and Composers Edition. She is Chair of the ISCM Wales Section, an Ivors Academy Senator and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama.