The London-based, Catalan composer Blai Soler was born in 1977 in Barcelona. He studied at the Barcelona Conservatoire until 1996 when he moved to London to study violin with Felix Andrievsky at the Royal College of Music, obtaining his BMus and a PGDip. Subsequently he went on to study composition at King’s College London with George Benjamin where he gained a MMus and a PhD.

Blai Soler’s music has been performed worldwide by prestigious ensembles and orchestras. One such group is the Ensemble Modern who, in 2020, premiered his work for violin and ensemble, Off the String, with Jagdish Mistry on the violin, conducted by Franck Ollu. The previous year saw the Dutch premiere of his orchestral work Sol by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Sir George Benjamin. Sol was a commission by the Orchestre National de Bordeaux Aquitaine who premiered the piece in 2017 conducted by Paul Daniel.

Blai Soler wrote his first orchestral piece, Plain-Chant, in 2011 for the London Philharmonic Orchestra who gave the work’s first performance under Clement Power. This was a highly acclaimed premiere that led to yet another LPO commission, A Walpurgis Night, for large ensemble, which premiered at the Royal Festival Hall later in the year, conducted by Nicholas Collon. That same year Plain-Chant was played in the inaugural concert at the Klangspuren Festival in Austria with the Tiroler Symphonieorchester Innsbruck led by Franck Ollu. In the 2012-13 season Blai Soler was the focus of an ‘artist portrait’ by the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, comprising several performances of Plain-Chant as well as the premiere of a specially commissioned work, Divinacions, all conducted by Pablo González.

Blai has also written numerous chamber pieces. His string quartet Imaginings – Six Pieces for String Quartet, commissioned by the Park Lane Group, received its premiere in 2014 by the Jubilee Quartet, with a review in The Telegraph praising “his six brief visions [which] stood out with the clarity of a dream”. The piece has since been played on numerous occasions including a live performance on BBC Radio 3. His Clarinet Quintet (2008) was written for the clarinettist Cristo Barrios and the Arditti Quartet

In 2009 Blai took part in the Ensemble Modern’s International Composition Seminar for whom he wrote d’amor i mort. That same year he was commissioned by the Festival Nous Sons (L’Auditori, Barcelona) to write a piano trio, Tankas, which later featured at the 2011 Festival Musica in Strasbourg. Blai’s early pieces are mostly chamber pieces and include Motus (2002), Ecce Homo (2003), Cantus Firmus (2006) and Tumults, Visions (2007).

Blai Soler’s music is published by Éditions Durand (Universal Music Publishing).