Biography

Lara’s music blends electronic soundscapes and sampled material with traditional acoustic and classical instruments. Taking a home grown and intuitive approach, Lara’s interests lie in the accidental, the found, indeterminacy, messiness of stuff, experimental and collaborative music making, going with mistakes, (Beckett - “Fail again, fail better”), not knowing...

Performers and collaborators who have played Lara’s music include Juliet Fraser, Mark Knoop, Orkest de Ereprijs, Louis D’heudieres, Lola de la Mata, members of the London Symphony Orchestra, the National Dance Company of Wales, Exaudi, Plus-Minus Ensemble, Quatuor Bozzini, National Youth String Orchestra, Vaganza, Matsena Productions, Waste Paper Opera Company, Satoko Inoue, Quatuor Danel and No Door Theatre Company.


Her music has been played in venues such as the Wigmore Hall, Barbican, Milton Court, Sadler’s Wells Main Stage, Lilian Baylis Studio, The Place, Iklectik, St Mary at Hill, SET Dalston Lane, Rosemary Branch Theatre, APT Gallery, Cosmo Rodewald Concert Hall, The South Lookout Tower (Aldeburgh), John Thaw Theatre, Carole Nash Recital Room, RCNM, Silk Street Music Hall, Ludlow Assembly Rooms, The Performance Bar (Rotterdam) and Gigant, Apeldoorn (Holland), Cardiff Dance House, Theatr Clwyd. Festivals and concert series include Music We’s Like to Hear (London), Oxfor Leider, New Music Northwest (Manchester), Freedom of Movement Festival (London) and the Ludlow English Song Weekend (Ludlow).


Lara has worked with choreographer Anthony Matsena, including on 'Shades of Blue' (commissioned Dance East and Sadler's Wells) which received four star reviews from both the Guardian and the Financial Times, and features in the BBC4 Documentary 'Brothers in Dance'. Her music for 'Codi' with the National Dance Company of Wales was described as the "chief jewel that shines on the overall crown" (Owen J. Lewis).


She was awarded the Junior Fellowship (2019/2020) at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she studied her postgraduate Artist Master’s degree in Composition as a Leverhulme Arts Scholar with Paul Newland and Cassandra Miller. Previously, she studied composition with Richard Whalley and Camden Reeves at the University of Manchester, and violin with Jonathan Martindale. Her studies were generously supported by the Leverhulme Trust and the Guildhall Trust.

Lara was nominated for and Ivor Novello award in 2022. 




© LARA AGAR 2023