Lara Poe is a Finnish-American composer who is currently based in London.  She has worked with ensembles such as the London Symphony Orchestra and the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, and her works have been performed across a wide range of venues throughout the US, Europe, and Asia. Her piece Kaamos, which she wrote for the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, was nominated for a 2021 Ivors Composer Award in the Large Scale Composition category.  Kaamos also was selected by YLE Radio Finland to represent Finland at the International Rostrum of Composers 2021 in Belgrade, Serbia.  Recent projects include a large-scale song cycle for the mezzo-soprano Virpi Räisänen, which is a co-commission between the Oulu Symphony and Lahti Symphony orchestras.

 

Poe has received recognition in several competitions, most recently receiving a BMI Student Composer Award in 2021, and the Theodore Holland Intercollegiate Composition Prize in 2020. In 2017 she was the first female winner of the William Schuman Prize in the BMI Student Composer Awards.  Poe is currently a doctoral student at King’s College London, studying with George Benjamin. She is represented by Blom Music Management and published by Fennica Gehrman.