Who is Evelyn Sykes
Evelyn's Story
With opera singers for parents, it’s no wonder that composer, Evelyn Sykes, was destined for a life of music. In fact, her earliest childhood memories involve playing in theatre aisles during countless opera rehearsals. This exposure at such a young age to classical Italian composers such Verdi and Puccini helped mold Evelyn’s innate talent and musical style into what it is today.
Later, Evelyn became heavily influenced by composer, Igor Stravinsky, and was drawn to his stylistic diversity, as well as a large variety of modern composers such as James Horner (Aliens; Star Trek II), Jerry Goldsmith (Alien; Star Trek: The Next Generation), Mark Snow (The X-Files) and Angelo Badalamenti (Twin Peaks). A strong love for today’s rock bands such as Metallica, Guns N Roses, Led Zeppelin and The Prodigy helped develop Evelyn’s signature use of choral and electronic elements, as well as her unique percussive sounds.
At age 15, she began to actively pursue an interest in composing music and three years later won Third Prize in the UK National Young Composer of the Year Competition. In 2006, Evelyn completed an MA in Composing For Film and Television at the National Film and Television School (NFTS), where her studies were supported with scholarships from the PRS Foundation and the Musicians Union. Before studying at the NFTS, Evelyn studied composition at The Trinity College of Music in London and composing for the screen at Bournemouth University. While at The Trinity College of Music, Evelyn won First Prize in the Daryl Runswick Prize For Composition, as well as silver medal for the graduating class of 2001.
Since then she has written a huge variety of music for film, concert, radio, dance and commercials. Feature films she has scored include, The Old Man and The Land (directed by Nicholas Parish), Anti Matter (directed by Keir Burrows), The Hit Producer (directed by Kevin de la Isla O’Neill), Resurrecting the Streetwalker (directed by Ozgur Uyanik), Tuesday (directed by Sacha Bennett) and Brash Young Turks (directed by Naeem Mahmood and Ash Mahmood).
Evelyn Sykes has composed music for the television show Uncanny (available on BBC iPlayer and broadcast on BBC2), the Uncanny Podcast on Radio 4, as well as radio dramas Battersea Poltergeist and The Witch Farm, Other radio dramas with music by Evelyn include The Scarifyers (starring the late Nicholas Courtney, the late David Warner and Terry Molly) broadcasted on BBC Radio 7 as well as You Must Listen, Howl's Moving Castle, The Ash Tree, Baker’s End, Peter Pan, Blood On Satan’s Claw and The Hellhound Heart. In addition, Evelyn scored the music for the computer game Infinite Space III: Sea of Stars, available on Steam.
Her concert music has been performed by members of The London Symphony Orchestra, The Spiral Saxophone Quartet, The Ebony Quartet, The Paddington Brass Quintet and The Ariel Ensemble in San Francisco. It was at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where Evelyn’s short composition received a rare and memorable standing ovation from the orchestra itself after it was performed at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
"The original score by Evelyn Sykes is a thrilling, synth-driven and impactful supporting act. The first scene of Anti Matter introduces a beautiful melody played on the piano, which becomes a vital thread in the story and as the film progresses and evolves, Sykes’ work does too. It’s a score that stuck with me, and it’s one of the highlights of the film itself. " Taryll Baker, UK Film Review
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Evelyn Sykes
