St Paul’s orchestral role is music to Solfa’s ears

First prize in composition leads to Covent Garden job for Fermoy girl, says Nicki ffrench Davis

IT’S not often an orchestra spontaneously takes a composer under its wing. For Solfa Carlile, who is in her mid-20s, her appointment as composer-in-residence is a demonstration of support from the musicians of the Orchestra of St Paul’s in London’s Covent Garden.

Carlile was born into a family of actors and theatre-makers and grew up in Fermoy in north Cork, attending the Cork School of Music as a teenager. Her father, who became an academic scientist and therefore “the black sheep of the family,” gave her the whimsical name of Solfa, anticipating his girl’s future. Carlile learnt flute and piano, and “when I was about 10 or 11 I started having a go at writing music,” she says. “Friends used to play it for me and for the Leaving Certificate I took the composition option. Then I heard about the Bill Whelan/IMRO music bursary. I applied and I got it.”