PORTFOLIO

Photo by Rune Svenningsen

Danish / US American Lil Lacy is a composer whose curiosity is at the center of her music. She works with the meeting of media and genres, focusing on the connectivity within music. Creating without the limitations of the classical structures, Lacy is also a performer, a singer and experimental cellist. This unique perspective offers her music a malleability to space. 

Lacy’s music is born in the meeting with performers, audiences, and space. From installation to orchestra, she creates tailor-made universes, claiming the right to be heard. 

Lacy has composed for orchestra, choir, installations and electronics, and in collaboration with art films, theatre, visual arts and dance. Her curiosity allows her to move between worlds, bringing herself into each one, whilst absorbing a bit of them, each time. 

A reflection on our time and culture, Lil Lacy’s music questions and inquires on who we were and where we are going, whilst dreaming of a better future. Her work deals with the big questions of her generation, human connectivity, society, our culture and heritage, climate change and nature.

World premiere of Aurōra, for orchestra, with Gävle Symphony Orchestra and conductor Christian Reif, 2023. Photos by Gävle Symphony Orchestra.

Lacy’s orchestral work Aliento del Mar, is inspired by the movement of the tide, the push and pull of large forces.
The music, as does nature, constantly transforms, from something that can barely be heard, to something that can barely be stopped again (Arbetarbladet 2021). With her use of among others plastic bags, Lacy deepens the ocean sound, whilst highlighting the issue of plastic waste in our waters.  

Lacy is active and entrepreneurial in the music environment, amongst other things, initiating and facilitating the Composer Collective, and as a board member of Danish Composers’ Society (2023- 2025).

Collaborative creative processes and long-term collaborations are appreciated deeply by Lacy, who is grateful to be able to unfold and develop long-term collaborations as the Composer in Residence at the Danish Philharmonic Orchestra (2024-2027) as well as Gävle Symphony Orchestra (SE) (2025-2026).

Lacy will continue the exploration of her great interest in staged, spatial and site-specific productions, as well as her love of working with orchestras, chamber ensembles and soloists, in different collaborative productions.

    • 2018 - 2020 / Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus, Advanced Postgraduate Diploma in composition with prof. Simon Steen-Andersen, Juliana Hodkinson, Niels Rønsholdt and Bent Sørensen.
      Studies with Anthony Davis, Katharina Rosenberger, Roger Reynolds, Mark Dresser and Wilfrido Terrazas at University of California San Diego (UCSD) in 2019.

    • 2016 - 2018 / Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus, MA in composition with prof.  Simon Steen-Andersen and Niels Rønsholdt. Studies with Mark Dresser at UCSD and with Roscoe Mitchell at Mills College in 2018

    • 2013 - 2014 / Copenhagen Business School / Courses in Management of Creative Business Processes

    • 2011 – 2013 / Voice Embodiment / Studies of vocal- and respiratory techniques and performance by Anne Rosing

    • 2007 - 2010 / The Rhythmic Music Conservatory, BA in voice, dance and music
      Studied Classical Indian Carnatic singing and konnakol in Chennai, India for 2 months in 2009 

    • 2026 – 2027 / Composer in Residence at Oremandsgaard Kammermusikfest (DK)

    • 2025 – 2026 / Composer in Residence at the festival Festival & Friends (DK)

    • 2025 – 2026 / Composer in Residence at Gävle Symphony Orchestra (SE)

    • 2024 – 2027 / Composer in Residence at the Danish Philharmonic Orchestra (DK)

    • 2020 / Recipient of the Léonie Sonning Talent Prize

    • 2015 / The band Travelling Tribes, received composer of the year DMA world, for the album Artificial Moonlights

    • 2013 / The band Travelling Tribes, received composer of the year DMA world, for the album Everything Seems to Change

    • 2023 / REVIEW / salt peanuts* / I HAVEN, new record by frk. jacobsen

      • “I Haven, like previous works of frk. Jacobsen, Lobsters and Thin Dry Sticks (Eget Værelse, 2013 and 2018), invites the listener into Jacobsen’s highly imaginative and colorful music world. She composed the music and the lyrics, now staged like a theatrical, cosmic-psychedelic experience in a magical garden where all things arise and transform, as in the natural seasons. From being on the forest floor, by the cherry tree to the field, where you can meet a heifer calf transformed into a stone, or a woman that ages suddenly, as all are interrupted by a few intermezzos into the future but incorporating ideas from the ancient world.” by Eyal Hareuveni

    • 2022 / REVIEW / Sceneblog / CRAWL CRAWL CRAWL ****** (6 stjerner)

      • “Det er Jon R. Skulberg der overordnet står for det ultrastringente og ruminddragende koncept samt den billedmæssigt overlegne iscenesættelse, men Convoi Exceptionnel forestillingen ville ikke være den samme uden komponisten Lil Lacy og dramaturgen Astrid Hansen Holm, der sammen med Skulberg har skrevet den både overraskende og rørende libretto. Samt selvfølgelig føromtalte dirigent Mathias Skaarup Sørensen og ENSEMBLE EDGE, der fornemt eksekverer tonernes dans i bassinet.
        For CRAWL CRAWL CRAWL er ikke blot lydligt smuk, bevægende og billedmæssigt overlegen, værket er i høj grad også et samfundskritisk værk, hvor librettoens ord og sætninger sætter spor, der breder sig som ringe i vandet.”

      • ”Komponisten Lil Lacy rammer i plet med sine til tider sakrale toner, og er overbevisende i sin udnyttelse af bassinets Habeas Corpus, hvor vandets ret til at blive hørt opretholdes og udnyttes på fineste vis. De plask og dryppende lyde vi er vant til som udtryk for barnlig glæde eller kraftudfoldelse i forbindelse med svømmetag, er i CRAWL CRAWL CRAWL integreret i korets sang, og minder os konstant om – på trods af den alvorstunge libretto – hvilket rum vi befinder os i.
        Svømmehallen insisterer på at blive hørt, og Convoi Exceptionnel har med CRAWL CRAWL CRAWL skabt en unik forestilling, der i en større sammenhæng er anden del af deres Trilogi for læringsrum, men også står frem som et selvstændigt værk der insisterer på at blive hørt.
        Summen af verdens tårer er konstant.
        Konserveret i klor.
        I klor, tårer.
        Exclusively for you!”

    • 2022 / REVIEW / iscene / CRAWL CRAWLCRAWL at PASSAGE FESTIVAL

      • “Librettoen i ’CRAWL CRAWL CRAWL,’ der er skrevet af dramaturg Astrid Hansen Holm, instruktør Jon R. Skulberg og komponist Lil Lacy’formår at skabe poesi ud af velfærds- og klassesamfundets skyggesider og dets velkendte paradokser. Som når de helt nøgternt minder os om at, ”ingen vælger, hvor de fødes”. Snedigt er det også at bruge svømmehallen som rammesætning. Et af de (få) tilbageværende mødesteder for alle segmenter og lag af samfundet. Værket af anden del af den trilogi for og i læringsrum, som Convoi Exceptionnel igennem de seneste år har været i færd med at skabe, og som alle præsenteres på Passage Festival. Aldrig havde jeg forestillet mig, at så smuk en oplevelse kunne finde sted i en kommunal svømmehal.”

Resumé
 

SELECTED projects

Detached from Others // dance performance, spatial sound (2025)

DETACHED FROM OTHERS / dance performance and spatial sound production (2025)

CRAWL CRAWL CRAWL / piece for 12 singers staged in a swimming pool (2022)

RELATION / MANIPULATION / MUTATION / film, installation and Dolby Atmos production (2025)

JÖRÐ / film, dance, spatial sound (2023)

CONCERT FOR A SPACE AND TIME / site-specific performance concert for choir and strings (2019-2024)

THE WAVE / audiovisual installation (2022)

YOU’RE SOMEHOW CONNECTED the DREAM & VISION of the 76 min. large-scale gesamtkunstwerk, existing in three different formats (2020-2025)

ORCHESTRA MUSIC / composed by Lil Lacy

CHAMBER MUSIC / composed by Lil Lacy

MUSIC PERFORMED BY LIL LACY / different ensembles

LIL LACY / solo artist

 
List of works
Calendar
 

Lil Lacy is one of the most stunning, unique, creative compositional voices right now.
Her music is evocative and affecting, it really moves me. She doesn’t only write clearly, but she also has a finely attuned ear and knows exactly what she wants and how to get the specific sounds. I’ve conducted several of her pieces across many different countries, and am happy to report that both musicians and audiences are absolutely enthralled by her music. I’m delighted that we’re collaborating even closer, as she is our composer in residence with the Gävle Symphony Orchestra this season (25/26). I hope for many many more collaborations together!

Christian Reif
Conductor

 

Lil and I have over the past three years collaborated on multiple projects and from the very first meeting I was struck by her enthusiasm and eagerness, her curiosity and expressiveness as a human being and an artist. I am sure that Lil's wonderful approach to collaboration as such and her personal and rich style of writing and expressing herself through music will continue to be highly rewarded.

Jonas Frølund
Clarinetist and entrepreneur

 

I have had the privilege of getting to know Lil Lacy and her music for almost two years. She is a composer with original and deeply felt musical ideas, and she has an extraordinary ability and energy to translate these ideas into orchestral music. Lacy's great interest and energy in the composition process creates a strong development as a composer, which has already led to many performances, and she is now working on several orchestral commissions. Lil Lacy is actively involved in cultural life and is enterprising in her initiatives and unique collaborative projects. I foresee a bright future for her as a composer!

Rolf Martinsson
Composer and Professor of Composition at the Malmö Academy of Music, Lund University

 

As a stage director, I have experienced how composer Lil Lacy and I, together have developed new and uncompromising formats of performances. From site specific works to classical black box theatre performances. The collaboration between composer Lil Lacy and I exemplifies how artistic synergy can create strong artistic experiences that engage audiences emotionally while provoking critical and sensory reflection on social issues such as loneliness in the performance ‘Detached from Others’ and inequality in ‘CRAWL CRAWL CRAWL’ (a staged piece for 12 singers in a swimming pool). We have collaborated for over a decade, and I am looking forward to continuing our journey to discover new meetings between my visions for performances and her unique sensibility and openness to transform spaces through her compositions.

Jon R Skulberg 
Stage director, Convoi Exceptionnel 

 

 I’ve had the pleasure of working with Lil Lacy on increasingly ambitious projects involving the pipe organ, as her fascination with the instrument has grown ever deeper. It has been a joy to witness the evolution of her compositional technique and her deepening understanding of the organ — exploring its boundaries in terms of sound, function, and presence in performance.

Lil and I share a passion for the audiovisual, and we’ve even performed together. The highlight of our work together so far has been Detached from Others, a choreographed solo dance piece created by scenographer Jon R. Skulberg, featuring an extended score composed entirely for pipe organ by Lil. Her ability to shape such a compelling long-form work while being fully engaged in the planning, recording, and mixing process left me very impressed. I look forward to continuing and deepening our musical journey. 

David Bendix Nielsen
Organist

 

Contact

Photo by Rune Svenningsen

For orchestra scores and commissions, please contact:
Music publisher Edition Wilhelm Hansen
Promotion manager Elvira Mormino: em@ewh.dk

For other questions, scores or inquiries, please contact:
Lil Lacy: lillacymusic@gmail.com

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