Laurence Osborn is new Fellow Commoner in the Creative Arts

Composer Laurence Osborn is appointed Fellow Commoner in the Creative Arts at Trinity for two years.

Dr Osborn studied music at Hertford College Oxford, composition at the Royal College of Music, and opera making and writing at the Guildhall School of Music. He completed his PhD in Composition at King’s College London during the pandemic.

Dr Osborn has worked with many of the UK’s leading orchestras and ensembles. Most recently his composition TOMB! won the Chamber-Scale Composition at the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards 2024 ‘for an outstandingly imaginative and engaging chamber-scale work.’

We caught up with Dr Osborn to find out more about his plans as Fellow Commoner in the Creative Arts.

What plans do you have for your time here at Trinity?

During the fellowship, I will be composing three pieces: an ensemble piece for the London Sinfonietta, a horn concerto for Ben Goldscheider and the Manchester Camerata, and a set of preludes for George Fu. I’ll also be recording a portrait album in the Chapel next year, with 12 Ensemble, GBSR Duo, Mahan Esfahani and conductor Clement Power.

What does being a Fellow Commoner in the Creative Arts at Trinity mean to you? 

It’s the environment of the College I’m most excited about. I finished my PhD remotely during lockdown before working freelance, so I haven’t been anchored within an educational institution for the last five years. To be granted access to a learning environment like this –  especially one as formidable as Trinity – is a real privilege.

Who inspires you?

This changes all the time. There are some figures, though, who I constantly return to, and who always seem to offer something new and strange: Stravinsky, Ravel, Ligeti, Birtwistle, John Coltrane, Tom Waits, Joni Mitchell, and J Dilla.

What are you most proud of?

My sons, Luke and Raphaël.

Trinity has two posts for Fellow Commoners in the Creative Arts, one for writers and one for artists working in any art form. Poet and critic Tristram Fane Saunders is also Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts at Trinity.