Hannah Mary Peel (born 27 August 1985) is a British singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and composer. Her solo music is primarily electronic, synthesiser-based and often includes classical scoring and sound design, with references to the links between science, nature and music. She has scored music for television, film, theatre and dance, including Game of Thrones: The Last Watch (a special documentary).[citation needed]
Apart from her solo work, Peel has worked with collaborators on projects including orchestrations and conducting for Paul Weller, an album with the poet Will Burns, and as a member of the psychogeography indie rock group The Magnetic North and the electronic music group John Foxx and the Maths.[citation needed]
She has released solo records on her own imprint label, My Own Pleasure Records, including Fir Wave, Awake But Always Dreaming[1] and Mary Casio: Journey to Cassiopeia.[2]
Early life
Peel was born in Craigavon, Northern Ireland, on 27 August 1985.[3] When she was eight years old, her family moved to Barnsley in South Yorkshire.[4] Her father was an amateur folk musician, and she joined him in musical gatherings, including holidays in County Donegal, Republic of Ireland.[2] She enrolled in the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts at age 18. There, she studied violin, trombone and piano.[3]
Music career
Performer/orchestral arranger/session musician
In 2018, Peel met Paul Weller through producer and co-songwriter Gawain Erland Cooper. She arranged strings and woodwind for his 2018 album True Meanings. Following the release, Peel orchestrated and conducted a small orchestra for his 2019 live album Other Aspects: Live at the Royal Festival Hall which featured songs from True Meanings, The Jam, Style Council and Weller's solo material. She has also orchestrated his record, On Sunset and the album Fat Pop.[citation needed]
TV and film scores
In 2013, Peel won a Royal Television Society Award for Best Title Music for "Chloe", which had been featured in the British television series Dates. The track was individually adapted and rescored for each episode of the series. In February 2014, Peel released the EP Fabricstate which includes "Chloe". The artwork for the EP was created by Karborn and designed by Jonathan Barnbrook.
In 2016, Peel composed the music for Alzheimers Research UK's television and online Christmas campaign, entitled Santa Forgot, and made in collaboration with Aardman Animations.[citation needed]
In 2018, Peel composed the title music to the BBC drama The A List produced by Kindle Entertainment. She also wrote the title music and composed additional scores for the Channel 4/Netflix series Kiss Me First.
In 2019, Peel scored her first feature-length film score to the documentary Game of Thrones: The Last Watch[citation needed] in which she was nominated for a Television Academy Emmy Award.
In 2020, Peel scored the soundtrack to the BAFTA-nominated BBC 2 documentary Lee Miller: A Life on the Frontline.
In 2020, Peel scored the soundtrack for the Channel 5 drama The Deceived written by Lisa McGee.[5]
In 2018, Peel composed a score featuring synths, live percussion and drums for a new, theatrical adaptation of Brighton Rock by the Pilot Theatre Company. The production toured the UK between February and May 2018. Also in that year, working primarily on music box, Peel created several hand-punched pieces of music for the score to TeZukA about the life of manga artist Osamu Tezuka by the choreographer and dancer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui.
