Selected as part of the 2020 Picture Gallery Composer-in-Residence scheme.

Their residency work

You can see and hear their musical response to Royal Holloway's art collection as part of this residency either here or on the Department of Music YouTube channel:

About the composer

Haven is a composer from Greater London and is primarily interested in composing scores for video games and films. Initially, Haven performed as a classical cellist and pianist, but at the age of fifteen they discovered that composing was what they loved most and is now in their third year studying music and German at Royal Holloway with ludomusicologist Dr Tim Summers as their personal tutor.

The Master of the Queen’s Music, Judith Weir, described Haven as ‘ingenious’ after reviewing their composition coursework for their A-level in music when invited to their school. At the age of eighteen, Haven composed their first soundtrack outside of academia for the short film Monsoon Season directed by Matthew Cullum, which won a place at the 2019 Little Wing Film Festival in London. In 2020 during an internship with Journeyman Pictures, Haven wrote the soundtrack for a promotion video for the company, which was described as ‘extremely professional’ by their colleagues. Haven has also composed for various projects at Royal Holloway, including a film score entitled Disconnected Whirlwind for The Student Workshop, and a piece for the open-score project within the Royal Holloway New Music Collective entitled Labyrinth. This piece was described as ‘fun to perform and listen to’ and was highly commended by the performers who Haven worked with.

In the future, Haven hopes to work in the video game industry as a composer/sound designer, but also finds a lot of joy in writing themes and soundtracks for films. Their style is inspired by their background of classical music, rock music, and their love of video game soundtracks.