BIOGRAPHY

American-born composer Jacquelyn Hazle (b.1993-) writes for numerable and ever-expanding forces, including solo, chamber, orchestral and vocal repertoire. Her work relentlessly pursues new topographies for human and musical expressivity and contemplation. Jacquelyn's music has been commissioned by NYOS Engage and performed by numerous prominent musicians, including Kevin Bowyer, Amy Advocat, Lilit Hartunian, City of Glasgow Chorus, GAIA string duo, and members of Red Note Ensemble. She was featured in the 2022 PLUG New Music Festival and was a 2018 recipient of the Berklee College of Music Contemporary Compositions Award.

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Her work has pressed against the fringes of vocal writing conventions renegotiating the composer’s relationship with the written word. In 2021, she successfully designed and debuted her novel vocal form, the ‘loqua’. She has written her own text for solo voice, choir, and opera. Jacquelyn is also an accomplished producer and curator of innovative new music performances and collaborations. In 2023 her highly successful original concept, Keys2 ("keys-squared") for new organ and piano works, was inaugurated into a recurring series between the Laidlaw Music Centre (University of St Andrews) and the Research Engagement Department of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

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Jacquelyn's compositions and writing style rarely conform to a single category. She’s equally given to use flowing melodicism, strikingly assertive motifs, unexpected dissonances, and colourful, atmospheric textures. She has written numerous technical, experimental solos and is passionate about new music performance for people of any musical background or level, having been commissioned multiple times to write new works for school-aged wind band. Her recent debut opera The Witnesses (2024) is an emotional powerhouse that unabashedly tackles life's tough questions about suffering and hope. Her piano solo IRoNI (2023) is angular, jumpy and sporadic, while her eclectic Hours (2022) is an otherworldly blend of timbres for trumpet, viola, and cello. Jacquelyn is fascinated with the stories and lives of people, finding little humanities in the simple and unassuming. She also likes to take musical inspiration from visuals, images, or narratives from the natural world. In 2019, she wrote her clarinet trio Scars, black and green, inspired by the Thomas Fire that hit her hometown in 2017. Sometimes, it’s the abstract or absurd that unveils in Jacquelyn’s music through works such as her subtle yet cheeky rebuke of Nietzsche, Nihilism (2022) for two sopranos and speaking voice, or Nebula Flow for three clarinets (2017).

 

Jacquelyn holds a PhD in Composition from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and accredited by University of St Andrews (2025), supervised by Stuart MacRae (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) and Michael Ferguson (University of St Andrews). She previously resided in Boston, Massachusetts where she studied composition under John McDonald, Kareem Roustom and Gabriele Vanoni. She holds a MA in Music from Tufts University (2021) and a BM in Composition, Summa cum laude from Berklee College of Music (2018). In addition to composition, Jacquelyn has studied and performed as a clarinettist and a classical singer. She was born and raised in a small beach city in Southern California, USA and currently resides in Glasgow, Scotland.