Claire Wickes is a film and media composer currently living in London, UK. Her work often combines electronic and acoustic sounds, and with an extensive background in orchestral music she seeks to explore and extend this musical world. She has always been captivated by telling stories, and brings this narrative focus to her work, whether collaborating with filmmakers or working with individuals and brands on bespoke music.
Claire holds a position as Composer and Creator for the Berlin-based company Orchestral Tools; she works with sampled sounds ranging from traditional medieval instruments to experimental industrial sounds - and everything in-between. Crossing over her two worlds as Composer and Flautist, she collaborated with Orchestral Tools to create her own library of flute textures and colours called ‘Lucent’, which is available for anyone to download and use in their own compositions.
During the lockdowns in 2020, Claire began an ongoing project inspired by the book Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls by Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo, a children’s book which documents the true stories of extraordinary women. By opening this book at a random page and writing a piece of music in just twenty-four hours inspired by whichever influential woman the book falls open at, Claire hopes to honour and celebrate these women’s stories in a creative and joyful way. It also serves as a personal response to the huge gender imbalance that still exists to this day in the sphere of composition.
Claire won the award for Best Original Score at the Director’s Choice Fan Film Awards, for her score for the animated short Batman: Broken Promise. Past collaborations include animation studio Origami Dollar, Spitfire Audio, YouTuber Coffeezilla, The Cue Tube and Buzzfeed UK amongst others.
She studied at Oxford University and the Royal College of Music, graduating with first-class honours from both institutions. She remains heavily sought after as a flautist both in her role as principal flautist of the English National Opera and in session work on major film scores and soundtracks.
For collaborations, or to hear examples of Claire’s work, please get in touch, visit Claire’s instagram, or find her on YouTube.