Solfa Carlile is originally from Cork, Ireland. She was twice awarded the Bill Whelan Music Bursary, graduating in 2009 with first-class honours from the Royal College of Music, London. She received an MMus in Advanced Composition in July 2011.

She was composer-in-residence for the London Irish Symphony Orchestra during her undergraduate study at RCM, and appeared on RTE Radio’s ‘The Eleventh Hour’ to discuss her symphonic commission ‘Deirdre and Naoise’ in 2007. In London her work has been performed by Okeanos, BBC Singers, London Chamber Orchestra and the Composers Ensemble. Solfa was recently awarded the 2010 Jerome Hynes Commission by The National Concert Hall, Ireland for her voice and piano piece Sounds, set to the poem by Irish poet Brendan Kennelly. The award culminated in the piece being performed at The National Concert Hall by mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught in March 2010. She was also awarded a New/Explore prize by the London Chamber Orchestra for her piece Ad Locum, in May 2010. She was mentored by Harrison Birtwistle for Dartington’s Theatre of Illusion Project in 2010, and by Japanese Composer Somei Satoh at the Summer School in 2009.

Solfa recently received the Aldworth Philharmonic Orchestra’s Young Composer Award, and had her piece ‘Phantom Isle’ performed at Reading Concert Hall in January 2011. Following this, she became the 2011 winner of the Orchestra of St. Paul’s Composers Award, and a new work, ‘The Copper Faye’ was premiered at St. Paul’s Covent Garden in June. She has contributed articles to two International Arts Journals and presented papers on constructivism and pre-composition at the International Congress of Music Signification in Krakow, and the International Journal in Rome. She is based in Cork and London.