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Mid-shot of Southbank Centre Associate Artist Cassie Kinoshi standing against a grey and brown weathered wall, wearing a black dress and looking off to her right, holding her braids in her right hand

Cassie Kinoshi

Based in London and Berlin, Cassie Kinoshi is a Mercury Prize-nominated and Ivors Academy Award-winning composer, arranger and alto-saxophonist with a focus on creating multi-disciplinary and genre-blending performance work in various audio-visual contexts.

She is a composition graduate of the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, where she studied with Andrew Poppy and Stephen Montague. And as a bandleader, she writes for and performs with seed, her ten-piece ensemble featuring a number of top London-based improvising musicians.

As a composer for contemporary dance, film, visual-art and theatre, her production credits including the Park Avenue Armory NYC (Euphoria), National Theatre (Top Girls), the Globe Theatre (The Tempest), BalletBoyz (England on Fire and Bradley 4:18) and the Southbank Centre (Drew McConie’s The Nutcracker). Kinoshi has also been commissioned by orchestras and ensembles including London Symphony Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, London Contemporary Orchestra and Manchester Camerata and initiatives such as Renaud Capuçon’s festival Nouveaux Horizons in Aix-en-Provence, France.

With a keen interest in audio-visual, installation and combined-genre ensemble performance, in 2021 Kinoshi was Artist-in-Resident for London Unwrapped festival at King’s Place. Her residency included the world premiere of Three Suns Suite for Aurora Orchestra featuring members of seed, Synthesis, a night curated by Kinoshi of forward-reaching artists from London and echo an immersive installation created in collaboration with visual artist Anne Verheij with score featuring electronic soundscapes, field recordings and members of Chineke! Orchestra.

Kinoshi is no stranger to the Southbank Centre. In 2023 her commission gratitude premiered here to a sold-out Purcell Room. gratitude was written for members of the London Contemporary Orchestra in combination with seed and award-winning turntablist NikNak, accompanied by visuals from Birmingham/Belgrade-based artist GURIBOSH.

Hugely passionate about working as an educator and workshop leader, outreach is  an integral part of Kinoshi’s performance work. In 2020 and 2021 she arranged and conducted a community ensemble for EFG London Jazz Festival’s She is Jazz: Womxn Make Music performances here at the Southbank Centre and at Kings Place. And her Southbank Centre premiere of gratitude included a series of workshops with students who were subsequently invited to  attend the commission’s premiere.