Claire Cowan is one of New Zealand's most popular composers. She writes instrumental music for ballet, film & TV, theatre and visual media. In 2019, she became the first woman composer to write a full length ballet in New Zealand with her score "Hansel and Gretel" for the Royal New Zealand Ballet. She specialises in stringed instruments and often incorporates folk or percussive techniques in her writing. She is one half of the project collective LoCo with choreographer Loughlan Prior.