Bio
Maddie Ashman is a composer, singer songwriter and multi-instrumentalist based in South East London.
As a singer songwriter, Maddie aims to bring fresh sounds to modern music. Her latest EP ‘Apparently’ rebels against guitar-led convention, placing cello at the forefront of pop. In April this year, Maddie was announced runner up of the BBC Radio 1 live lounge competition, 2022, performing leading track '6AM', going on to perform the EP at Latitude Festival.
She has received praise from the likes of Tom Grennan and Tom Robinson, who she recently opened for on his UK tour.
As a composer, Maddie specialises in exploring' just intonation', that is pure tuning before temperament. Her work plays with the resonance and acoustical beatings that can arise through microtonality, studying privately with Michael Harrison. This year, Maddie has had her music played by Del Sol Quartet at the Pacific Pythagorean Music Festival 2022, and was also came 3rd in the 2022 International Microtonal Guitar competition.
Maddie was selected as a Britten Pears Young Artist 2021-22. For her Aldeburgh Festival commission, Maddie presented an audiovisual installation called 'Through the Motions', exploring human engagement with the Earth and nature. It featured a song cycle for guitar and multi-tracked voice in 'just intonation' with a film piece from Clemente Lohr.
Maddie enjoys interdisciplinary work, writing for film, podcasts and art exhibitions. She has scored three award winning short films for Piano Factory Films, with Mudlark nominated best UK short at Raindance Film Festival. She has also written and arranged original music for four award winning plays with Slipshod Theatre.
Aside from writing music, Maddie plays cello for Tom Rosenthal, and enjoys writing string parts for a number of emerging artists, such as Ciaran Austin, Harry Nye and Elise Aeserbold.