About this session
Bringing together composers, artists and industry professionals from across film, TV and beyond, the panel reflects the range of roles and paths available in the industry. Anna Phoebe and Bishi speak to what it means to build a career as a multi-faceted composer and performing artist, alongside conversation on how relationships with music supervisors and rights holders actually work, what turns one placement into repeat business, and how composers and agents find the right fit.
The panel closes by looking ahead — sharing the projects and ambitions shaping panellists’ next work in composition for screen, and moving from naming the problem to concrete, tangible solutions for gender disparity in the space.
Moderator
Harriet is the Commercial Rights Director for Faber Music, working with the Faber Music, Faber Alt & Manners McDade publishing catalogues, as well as the Manners Faber Composer Agency. Before the acquisition by Faber Music, Harriet became Managing Director of Manners McDade in 2018, from her role as Global Creative Manager since 2014. Previously, she has a background in PR, sync and brand-building for contemporary classical, alternative and electronic labels and artists.
Harriet is part of the Futures Group at the MPA as well as the UK Board for the leading voluntary international Women in Music organisation & network, shesaid.so, and is a co-founder of their mentorship programme she.grows. Harriet was a PRSF Keychange Innovator participant, as well as previous Jury for the Classical:NEXT festival; she is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and is recognised on a few years of the Music Industry Alternative Power 100 Lists, as well as the Music Week Roll of Honour.
Panellists
Louisa Rainbird is Head of Music, Europe at Amazon MGM Studios, where she leads a team of 11 people working across the music needs for all Prime Originals originating in Europe. During the course of her career, Louisa has worked on over 150 TV and film productions, overseeing music strategy and executive, department hires, budgets, rights requirements, and releases. Production highlights from her tenure at Amazon MGM Studios include The Girlfriend, Le Bal des Folles, Bait, Citadel: Diana, Operación Triunfo and Vaka.
A champion of social mobility and access to the music industry, she created Prelude, a PRS Foundation partnership supporting UK-based composers from under-represented backgrounds, and has actively mentored through programmes including SheSaidSo’s She Grows, Bright Sparks (Creative Mentor Network / Prime Video), and Berklee Mentoring.
Anna Phoebe is a composer, producer, performer and broadcaster whose work exists at the intersection of classical, electronic and experimental music. Renowned for her visceral, violin-led soundscapes, she creates emotionally charged works that fuse raw human energy with cutting-edge sonic exploration. Drawing inspiration from both the natural world and technological frontiers, her music moves fluidly between intimacy and cinematic scale.
Her acclaimed Sea Souls trilogy — Sea Souls (2021), Sea Souls Live (2022) and Sea Souls Reworks (2023) — was described as a dialogue between the sea and the psyche: love letters to the ocean, loss and transformation. Her 2025 album Divergence explored mortality, memory and spiritual change through compositions that began as site-specific works shaped by landscape and architecture. Following a sold-out UK tour, she continued to perform Divergence across the UK through 2026 and released the Divergence (String Reworks) EP. In May 2026, she performed a solo show at the Minack Theatre in Cornwall.
Since 2023, Anna has collaborated with DJ Mary Anne Hobbs on immersive live works combining violins, electronics, voice and visuals. Their performances have included Tate Britain, BBC 6 Music Festival, Glastonbury and Manchester International Festival.
As a screen composer, Anna co-scored Apple TV+ drama The Buccaneers alongside Aisling Brouwer, with additional credits including Channel 4 and ITV documentaries. Her work has been featured across Apple TV+, Netflix, BBC and Channel 4, and championed by BBC 6 Music, BBC Radio 3 and KEXP.
Anna also co-hosts BBC Radio 4’s Add to Playlist with Jeffrey Boakye. A magnetic live performer, she has appeared everywhere from beneath the Pyramids of Giza to the Royal Albert Hall and Glastonbury Festival.
Elizabeth is a champion for new music, talent development and gender equality. She joined PRS Foundation in 2016 and became their Grants and Programmes Manager in 2019. Here she leads gender focussed initiatives, next level opportunities for composers, bespoke programmes such as Prelude in partnership with Amazon MGM Studios, international conference fellowships at Classical:NEXT, and Musician in Residence Programmes with British Council. Elizabeth has spoken about the impact of PRS Foundation programmes and talent development in panels around the UK and internationally, most recently in Brussels and Berlin.
Elizabeth has raised significant funds from Arts Councils and Paul Hamlyn, and has created effective partner relationships with Southbank Centre, UK City of Culture and BBC Radio 3. She goes beyond funding and has led on curation and programme management of critically acclaimed new music festival New Music Biennial in Coventry, Bradford, and London, including curating world class music commissions with BBC Orchestras and bringing together 20 pieces of new music for a free festival, which breaks down the barriers for audiences to experience new music.
BISHI — British-Bengali artist, composer, producer, performer, technologist — works at the intersection of sound, heritage and innovation. She has released 4 albums and several EPs via her label Gryphon Records, as well as collaborating with the likes of Brian Eno, Tony Visconti, Sean Ono Lennon, Jarvis Cocker, Daphne Guinness, The London Symphony Orchestra, The Kronos Quartet, Trans Voices, fashion designer Manish Arora and as a Tanpura soloist on Jonny Greenwood’s ‘Water.’ BISHI has collaborated with orchestral ensembles including City of London Sinfonia, Royal Northern Sinfonia and Her Ensemble.
A vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, she was trained in Western and Hindustani classical music. She was trained in the sitar under Gaurav Mazumdar, a senior disciple of Ravi Shankar.
BISHI composed and produced her first full original score for ‘MAYA: The Birth of a Superhero,’ a VR experience shortlisted at Cannes 2024. Her first score for TV, ‘Defiance: Fighting the Far Right,’ aired on Channel 4. She was part of a team developing an AI composer tool with the University of Sheffield and has created a voice model with Neutone AI.
BISHI’s music AV installation ‘Reflektions,’ was commissioned for Coventry City of Culture and was exhibited internationally. BISHI was the first ever artist to have her work projected onto Greenwich UNESCO World Heritage Site.
In 2026, BISHI composed ‘The Water of Tyne: Reimagined’ as a three-part audio installation, now on permanent display at Glasshouse International Centre for Music in Newcastle, combining Raag Durga, choral composition, and field recordings. The choir includes the voices of Brian Eno, Jennifer Reid, ILĀ, Ian Bruce and Genevieve Dawson, alongside BISHI herself.
She sits on the boards of In Place Of War and the Featured Artists Coalition, and is a member of Hard Art Collective. In 2025, she was the Artist-in-Residence at the Pete Townshend Studio at the University of West London, and in 2026, she served as Module Leader in Global Popular Music at City St George’s, University of London. She scored the series ‘Escaping Idi Amin,’ forthcoming on BBC2 in October 2026.