Judith Bailey (composer)

Judith Margaret Bailey (18 July 1941 – 16 March 2025) was a Cornish clarinettist, composer and conductor. She was born in Camborne, Cornwall, and studied at the Royal Academy of Music from 1959–63, and. Since 1971 she has been working as a composer and conductor. She conducted the Southampton Concert Orchestra and Petersfield Orchestra (where she succeeded Kathleen Merritt in 1972) for almost 30 years before returning to her native Cornwall around 2001 where she conducted the Cornwall Chamber Orchestra and the Penzance Orchestral Society.

She is a Cornish composer; in 2001 she was honoured as an "Associate of the Royal Academy of Music" for showing distinction amongst her peers and in 2005 as a Bard of the Gorsedh Kernow for her contributions to music in Cornwall. She was a member of the Composers' Guild of Great Britain, the Cornish Music Guild, as well as a Trustee for the Cornwall Music Service Trust. Bailey died on 16 March 2025 in Cornwall after a short illness.