CassieKinoshi

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  • Composer

About Cassie

Southbank Centre Associate Artist (2025-2028)

Cassie Kinoshi is a Mercury Prize-nominated (2019) and Ivors Academy Award-winning (2018) Berlin/London-based composer, arranger and alto-saxophonist, as well as a bandleader of her eleven-piece ensemble seed., featuring many of London and Berlin’s leading improvising musicians.

In demand for her genre-blending performance work across contemporary classical, jazz/improvisation, film, television and visual art, Cassie explores themes from nature and heritage to speculative futures and the collective human experience, drawing audiences into richly layered soundscapes with boundary-crossing ambition.

Cassie has been commissioned by major orchestras and ensembles including the London Symphony Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, BBC Philharmonic, London Contemporary Orchestra, Chineke! Orchestra, The Ligeti Quartet, Manchester Camerata, Manchester Collective, GBSR Duo, the Detroit-based Sphinx Organization, and initiatives such as Renaud Capuçon’s Festival Nouveaux Horizons in Aix-en-Provence.

Named as a Southbank Centre Associate Aritist (2025-2028), Cassie is driven by a deep interest in audio-visual and installation-based performance and also served as Artist-in-Residence for the London Unwrapped Festival at King’s Place (2021).

Education and outreach remain integral to her practice. She has led workshops, community ensembles and youth collaborations—including arrangements and direction for EFG London Jazz Festival’s She is Jazz: Womxn Make Music (2020–21).

Cassie is based in Berlin and London

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Contact

For availability and general enquiries:

Jack Haynes

Jack Haynes

Artist Manager

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Video

Audio

  • HEART Movement I, Indolence
    Credit: Cassie Kinoshi, seed., London Symphony Orchestra
  • HEART Movement III, Wildflowers
    Credit: Cassie Kinoshi, seed., London Symphony Orchestra
  • i was in the state of mind to stay
    Credit: Cassie Kinoshi, Lydia Luke, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
  • to the hibiscus
    Credit: Cassie Kinoshi, Chineke! Orchestra, Rosie Bergonzi
  • SOLARISTIC PRECEPTS
    Credit: Cassie Kinoshi, London Sinfonietta
  • the colour of all things constant
    Credit: Cassie Kinoshi, BBC Philharmonic, Chetham's School Choir

Photos

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Compositions

HEART (2024)

JAZZ ENSEMBLE | 2 Trumpets in Bb (1st dbl. Fluglehorn) | Alto Saxophone | Tenor Saxophone |Trombone |Tuba | Piano |Guitar | Double Bass |Drum Kit ORCHESTRA 2 Flutes (2nd dbl. Piccolo) | 2 Oboes | 2 Clarinets in Bb | 2 Bassoons (2nd dbl. Contrabassoon) | 2 Horns in F | 2 Trumpets in Bb | 2 Trombones | 1 Tuba | Timpani | 2 Percussion | Harp | Strings 10.8.6.5.3 as commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra for EFG London Jazz Festival

[UNTITLED] (2025)

INSTRUMENTATION | Solo Turntables | 2 Flutes | Oboe | 2 Clarinets in Bb | Bassoon | 2 Horns in F | 2 Trumpets in Bb | 2 Percussion | Harp | 2 Pianos | Strings 3.2.2.1 as commissioned by Barbican Centre and Ensemble Intercontemporain

to the hibiscus (2024)

INSTRUMENTATION | Handpan (soloist) | E major handpan / Bb minor handpan | Strings 8.8.6.5.3 | Harp as commissioned by Chineke! Orchestra and percussionist Rosie Bergonzi

blue skies, bluer seas (2023)

INSTRUMENTATION | soprano voice | Strings 8.8.6.5.3 | Percussion (2) as commissioned by Julia Bullock (History’s Persistent Voice) and Philharmonia Orchestra

SOLARISTIC PRECEPTS (2021)

INSTRUMENTATION | Flute | Flute, Alto Flute |Clarinet in Bb | Clarinet in Bb, Bass Clarinet in Bb | Trumpet 1|Trumpet 2|Tenor Trombone | Percussion 1: Bass Drum, Crotales, Roto-toms | Percussion 2: Vibraphone |Harp |Piano | Violin 1 | Violin 2 | Viola | Violoncello |Contrabass As commissioned by the London Sinfonietta for their Third Stream programme, premiered at Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre

News

Press

  • If She Could Dance Naked Under Palm Trees (2025)

    London Symphony Orchestra

    • In many ways, it could be seen as a space created for this self-celebration and acceptance. The sound is full and rich. Brass instruments take a big role and the colours of the orchestra feel fanned out, which allows a sense of space for the listener and a promise of something better. Kinosh’s music is deeply evocative and important. In this two-and-a-half minutes of music, Kinoshi sets herself up to be one of its most exciting new voices.

  • [UNTITLED]

    Ensemble Intercontemporain at the Barbican Centre

    • Musically, it was exquisitely paced. Momentum gathered through the hefty bass of lower strings, fiendish trumpet curlicues were picked up by a cello screaming high up the fingerboard and two flutes combined in a moreish, barline-defying groove. At the heady climax, the orchestra was suddenly cut, leaving only a symphony of squelches, echoes and loops from the turntable, spinning out overhead.

Discography