Crystalla Serghiou composes music in both pop and classical styles, and she also works hard to fuse the genres. She explains how genre-blending is a reflection of her wide interests, all of which stimulate her.

When writing pieces for the National Youth Choir, Crystalla has taken inspiration from both her Cypriot upbringing, and her fascination with yodelling. She discusses writing music to suit different groups within the NYC and balancing fun with challenge.

Crystalla collects ideas in voice notes on her phone. She says she’s a perfectionist at heart, and has had to learn to accept more imperfections as she’s developed as a composer. She says it’s sometimes alright to start by writing, and come up with the meaning of the work later.

Jacob Fitzgerald is a composer of contemporary music. A piece Jacob wrote whilst studying music at school has been on the Trinity College London grade 8 piano syllabus. He explains how that came about, where the idea started and the response it’s had online.

Jacob discusses the programming of living composers’ music in concerts. Whilst he’s appreciative of opportunities, Jacob says sometimes it can be frustrating to be a token piece of new music.

Jacob says he tries to start writing music by hand, before inputting it into a computer. He says he composes quickly and doesn’t make many revisions of each piece.

Frankie Archer is an electrofolk artist who blends traditional music with synths and electronics to create a truly distinctive sound. She says she didn’t set out to necessarily create electrofolk music at first, but to bring together her interests.

Frankie explains how she comes across tunes and stories to work with and the process she goes through to make them her own, often starting by plucking melodies on her fiddle.

Frankie suggests the reason folk music contains lots of sad stories may be a reflection of people’s obsession with drama and gossip.

Frankie describes how she involves audiences in her live gigs, using special MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) controllers, and explains where the idea for that began.