"Her work is painstaking and profound"
Edwin Roxburgh, Composer
Eleanor has composed since she was around ten years old and was fortunate to start formal lessons at the Royal College of Music Junior Department, age 11, with Dr Peter Fribbins, a wonderful composer and mentor who remains a friend and inspiration. Far from being a 'second study', or even a third behind piano, Eleanor's writing is essential to her musical life and its experimental nature has peaked during the greatest upheavals and changes of her life. Alongside larger scale compositions for harp and strings, Eleanor offers commissions of 'postcards' - miniature pieces of music written from a prompt, or for a special person. Read more about these over on her ko-fi page.
Eleanor enjoys co-creating, for example 'Elusive Symmetry' (2011) with Alan Thomas, guitarist and composer. Elusive Symmetry is a cross-genre show, choreographed and danced by Lizzie Gough (So You Think You Can Dance, Everybody's Talking About Jamie, Strictly Come Dancing, Take That Circus Tour etc), a contemporary dancer who specialises in lyrical hip-hop and choreography for film and television. Elusive Symmetry was inspired by the visual graphic art of M.C. Escher, using musical tesselations to invite the listener into a mystical world, somewhat inspired by Alice In Wonderland. Eleanor's composition 'Alice in Escher's Wonderland' is her first fully-notated composition for harp and loop machine.
Eleanor's first foray into musical writing of a political nature came in 2020, when she collaborated with composer, guitarist and bass player Wayne Bennett, in response to a prompt from Sound and Music for 'Interpreting Isolation'. Eleanor and Wayne's composition aims to encapsulate the feelings of the world being thrown into confusion and loneliness following the lockdown of 2020. Eleanor and Wayne found this collaboration helped them to process what was happening politically world wide at this time, with one of the main players of the charade being Donald Trump. The now-forgotten passions that were aroused during the resurgence of the 'Black Lives Matter' movement, the temporary show of solidarity with the black squares on social media and so on, are recalled as Jada Pinkett-Smith's resounding tones close the track - "And THAT'S why we are here today" - listen below or visit our Bandcamp: And that's why we are here today (isolation response) | Bentu
Eleanor primarily writes music for harp and strings, often with electronic elements. Her work is poetic and playful, conjuring sonic landscapes particular to her own experiences. Eleanor's works-in-progress include a set of Scottish tunes inspired by the 100-year-old craft of soap-making using nettles and herbs, and her collection of Palestinian lullabies and resistance music.
One of Eleanor's most meaningful projects involved co-writing The Wood and The Water for electro harp and Myo armband, together with Sound Designer Dr Balandino Di Donata, in connection with the Integra lab at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. Balandino's HarpCI project is an intimate study of gesture; Balandino programmed his MyoSpat software so that particular harp-playing gestures triggered special effects and sound spatialisation. The work was premiered in Birmingham and subsequently performed at Southampton, Cardiff, London and in Shanghai at the 48th International Computer Music Conference, funded by the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.
A more recent work that Eleanor found particularly absorbing was creating the soundscape for visual artist Lucy Cade's 'Distorted Icons' exhibition in 2022. Eleanor sculpted acoustic and synthetic sounds; women speaking in many languages, hospital heart-rate monitors, the evocative sounds of Lucy's brushes on canvas, synths and more.
Shortlist of Eleanor's compositions:
I have no wish to say goodbye (2003) for harp, cello and lyre (funded by PRS Foundation for New Music) 15'
What do you see in the flames? (2004) for solo pedal harp
Butterflies' Autumn (2004, commissioned by Park Lane Group) for 2 harps, written for Double Action Harp Duo
Rambla! for 4 Harps (2007) for 4 Girls 4 Harps
Two Breton Girls by the Sea (2014) for solo amplified pedal harp, written for Vanja Contu
Set for Valerie (2018) for solo clarsach (also playable on pedal harp)
Yalla (2020) for high voices (SSA) and harp (pedal or lever)
Scream quietly or the neighbours will hear (2020) for harp, voice, synths, harmonium and bouncy balls, written for Vanja Contu and Maria Valentina Chirico
Eleanor writes with integrity and passion. She has been hugely inspired by the work of Kaija Saariaho, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Sofia Gubaidulina and currently Natalie Klouda, Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch and sound artist Yasmin Rai. Eleanor has a profile on the British Music Collection: Eleanor Turner | British Music Collection
Photo by Lucy Glen
In 2007 Eleanor composed the score for Blodeuedd (The Bride of Flowers) by Ballet Cymru, formerly known as Independent Ballet Wales. The process of working closely with the dancers and adapting the score to meet the needs of the production was a joyful introduction for Eleanor into the world of composing for dance. Here is a clip from the show, the singer is tenor Alexander Grove.
Enquiries: info@eleanorturner.com
© Eleanor Turner 2026