Carlijn Metselaar (1989) is a Dutch composer living in Edinburgh. She has received funding from Creative Scotland to compose twelve choral pieces that creatively explore sustainability and the climate crisis, starting in January 2026.

Her piece Herinnering was performed by Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra in May 2025. Her opera Theory of Everything was performed at Dutch National Opera in their 2023-2024 season, and again in October 2025. Her orchestral fanfare Vorfreude was composed to celebrate the inaugural concert of Andrés Orozco-Estrada as the new music director of the Wiener Symphoniker. She has written for Concertgebouworkest Young; LPO Young Composers Scheme; BBC Composition Wales; Uproar: Wales New Music Ensemble; Ty Cerdd’s CoDI Scheme with Berkeley Ensemble; LPO Junior Artists; and the RSNO Composers Hub:2019, with the piece Into The Living Mountain selected for performance in 2022.

She wrote the short opera Blackout based on the play by Davey Anderson as Composer in Residence with WNO Youth Opera. She also wrote the cabaret song Well, Actually about mansplaining for Olga Vocal Ensemble’s feminism tour, commissioned by Classical Movements (Washington D.C.).