CHARLOTTE BOTTERILL
Opus 1 composer
Charlotte is one of six Opus 1 composers selected for 2025
Charlotte is a composer who collects memories and moments in the form of music. Her compositions are inspired by her surroundings and her love of world travel. Her pieces aim to conjure an atmosphere or capture a fleeting moment. Bought up on a diet of classical music, jazz, and rock, her compositions borrow from these musical disciplines, resulting in her unique compositional voice.
Preserving memories was at the heart of In Retrospect, a vocal work written on Making Music’s Adopt A Music Creator project 2024. Similarly, her Nocturne in Fm documents her own experience of visiting Lulworth Cove. This piano piece features in the collection ‘22 Nocturnes for Chopin’ published by EVC Music. Premieres have been given nationally and internationally by Fidan Aghayeve-Edler, Rose McLachlan, Francesca Hurst, Késia Decoté, and Maria Marchant.
A committed educator, Charlotte is a sough-after piano teacher who has contributed to various TCL piano exam syllabi.
See more on Charlotte's website.
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Getting to know Charlotte
What’s the first thing you do when starting a new piece?
I come up with a concept and then I think about it a lot. I often stick an A3 sheet of paper on the wall and make a sort of mind map: descriptive words relating to the concept, attributes, musical ideas. I add to this over the course of a few days and use it to narrow down which characteristics and musical ideas I want to explore. This also helps me to decide the shape of the piece. Then I sit down at the piano with pencil and paper and actually start composing.
Where do you find inspiration for your music?
I’m often inspired by places I’ve visited, particularly those with a unique or distinctive character. Sometimes I compose to express something deep inside myself, for which I can’t find words. My work is primarily concerned with lived experiences and memories: capturing moments through music.
Was there a particular moment when you knew you wanted to be a composer?
This came quite late for me. I’ve always loved arranging, creating my own pieces, and studying composition, but it wasn’t until I won the Trinity College London Young Composers’ Competition in 2019 that I really thought about doing this at a higher level.
What are you hoping to explore or challenge in your work during Opus 1?
During Opus 1, I want to explore a different way of beginning a composition. Usually I get my musical ideas from improvising at the piano. This time, I want to start with a musical stimulus rather than generate my own. The stimulus will come from sound recordings taken at the place which I’m writing about. It could be bird song, a snippet of conversation, the sound of rain, anything at all. I will transform it into a musical fragment and use this to develop the piece. The aim is that the moment which I’m trying to capture is woven into the music, rather than memory and music existing as two separate entities.
What 3 pieces of music would be on your desert island disc?
Queen - Hammer To Fall
Jeff Buckley - Lilac Wine
Ravel - Daphnis et Chloe
Tea or Coffee?
Lemon green tea
Early bird or night owl?
Night owl
Pencil or software?
Pencil