ABOUT

Sorana Santos is an Ivors British Composer Award–nominated composer, songwriter, performer, and writer whose work has been praised for its “fresh originality and power” and the “flair and imagination inherent in her personality.” Her acclaimed interdisciplinary album–audiobook–book project Our Lady of Stars / Books of Hours exemplifies her distinctive approach—exploring intersections between music and language through concert works, commercial music, and literary forms.

Published by Warner and recognised with an industry award for innovation in sound design, Sorana’s music is broadcast internationally and spans major commissions from the BBC, Tate Modern, ORA Singers, The Rose Theatre Southbank, and the former Millennium Commission. Her media composition work includes bespoke composition and sound design for computer games, apps, documentaries, and audiobooks, which reach audiences internationally. She has collaborated with ensembles including The Ligeti Quartet and Juice Vocal Ensemble, leading improvisers such as James Maddren, Conor Chaplin, and Alex Bonney, and has been performed at prestigious venues and festivals including the Royal Albert Hall, Southbank Centre, Oxford Contemporary Music, and Glasgow Jazz Festival.

Weaving elements of contemporary, electronic, and improvised music with experiments in written and spoken word, Sorana creates contemplative and spacious sonic worlds using voice, prepared piano, harpsichord, and harmonium. Her writing—originally published by Lazy Gramophone Press (2006–2015)—evolved to include visual art and spoken word, released on her I Dream Sound imprint with distribution by The Orchard.

An influential educator and mentor, Sorana has nurtured Grammy and MOBO Award–winning artists over two decades at the Guildhall’s Centre for Young Musicians, and lectured at the University of Oxford from 2013–2020. She now mentors for the AEC-ECSA Alliance (co-funded by the European Commission) and ORA Singers, and serves as a musical director for artists at Sony and Red Light Management.

Sorana trained in piano and ’cello from a young age while attending The Tiffin Girls’ School, performing on local music scenes while recording as a pianist, vocalist, and arranger for independent artists and labels before earning her BMus with academic commendation from the Guildhall School, studying composition with Diana Burrell, and completing a PhD at Royal Holloway under Brian Lock and Nina Whiteman. She has received approximately £100,000 in creative and academic grants, most recently for ethnographic research in the US.

Outside her professional life, she enjoys rollerskating and photographing reflections on the river.