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Gloria Yehilevsky

Gloria Yehilevsky is a London-based composer and improviser who integrates percussion performance with ongoing multimodal enquiry, resulting in a fluid cluster of activity. Her transdisciplinary practice extends from improvised vibraphone performance to collaborative projects that dissolve hierarchies and audience-artist divisions—shaping a dynamic, introspective and exploratory sound.

She won the PAS/Armand Zildjian award, Italy PAS Vibraphone competition, and is a Musical Merit protégé. She performed with the San Diego Symphony, World Percussion Group, and alongside members of the Bang on a Can All-Stars at MASS MoCA, where Steve Reich described her as ‘an extremely impressive percussionist… with an amazing combination of technical mastery and riveting energy.’ Her instigatory ethos led to co-directing and performing in Dreamerfly, and other stories (2021), an interdisciplinary work joining composition by bassist James Owston and animation by Shiyi Li, which won a Mid-Atlantic Arts USArtists award and was praised as ‘ethereal’ by The Guardian.

Gloria is a confluence of influences: a third-culture kid raised in a Soviet Ukrainian immigrant home between her birthplace of Southern California and francophone Belgium. Her MSc in Psychology directly informs her compositions, with pieces exploring altered states of consciousness, mindfulness meditation, and aspects of cognition—both in their structural design and in how they engage improvisers.

A passionate educator championing music’s impact, she is a frequent guest artist at academic institutions and conferences worldwide. These engagements span scientific circles—including The Scientific & Medical Network—to multidisciplinary and artistic events across the UK, Europe, Asia, and North America, with invitations including PASIC (Percussive Arts Society International Convention), CalArts, University of Kentucky, Royal Northern College of Music, and Norwegian Academy of Music.

Currently active in the UK’s jazz, experimental, and contemporary scenes, recent and upcoming appearances include the Vortex, Sands Films, Centrala, Sō Laboratories (NY), Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room as part of Serious’ EFG London Jazz Festival. Gloria is simultaneously working on her PhD in Creative Practice at Trinity Laban Conservatoire.