Category Archives: music

University of Kent Medway campus Music Ensembles

 

Announcing the University of Kent Medway Music Ensembles for 2018 – 2019. All University of Kent staff and students are welcome, plus members of the local community aged 18 years or above. All ensembles are based at The Galvanising Shop, Historic Dockyard Chatham.

Strings Workshop – Monday 12-1pm
Pitch Slapped A Cappella – Monday 3-4pm
World Percussion – Monday 5-6pm
Little Big Band – Tuesday 4-5pm
Sonority – Tuesday 5-6pm
Chamber Music Forum – Wednesday 1-2pm
Band Forum – Wednesday 2-3pm
Sax & Flute – Wednesday 3-4pm
Jazz Improvisation – Wednesday 4-5pm
School Band – Wednesday 5-6pm
University Chamber Ensemble – Wednesday 7-9pm
Guitar Ensemble – Thursday 2-3pm
Pop, Rock & Soul Choir – Friday 2-4pm

If interested in joining please email: oldsurgreception@kent.ac.uk. For some groups, it will be necessary to interview/audition and to attend every week.

SMFA Music Lecturer Anna Neale elected to Songwriters Committee at BASCA

Anna Neale, 2018. Photo by Phil Mitchell

 

SMFA music lecturer Anna Neale, multi-talented singer/songwriter, composer, session vocalist and voice-over artist, is now an officially elected member of the Songwriters Committee at the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA), the voice for music writers.

BASCA campaigns in the UK, Europe and throughout the world and is the independent professional association representing music writers in all genres, from songwriting to media and contemporary classical to jazz.   More here: https://basca.org.uk/2018/06/25/board-and-committee-election-results-announced/

Anna has worked professionally in the music industry for over a decade. In that time she has toured the world, and has showcased at major music conferences across the globe and released two albums and two EP’s to critical acclaim.  Related post: https://www.kent.ac.uk/smfa/news.html?view=2781

 

See also https://www.kent.ac.uk/smfa/news.html?view=2840 and https://www.kent.ac.uk/smfa/news.html?view=2886

SMFA Professor of Contemporary Music Tim Howle has new work premiered at the Art & Science Days Festival in France

 

Professor Tim Howle, SMFA Professor of Contemporary Music has a new acousmatic piece premiered on 27th June in Bourges, France at the Art & Science Days Festival. False Memory of Normandy (2018) was composed in collaboration with the poet J M Fox. Link here: https://soundcloud.com/tim-howle/d-day

Professor Howle’s interests include developing composition, primarily sonic art, acoustic music and music for experimental video.  More here: https://www.kent.ac.uk/smfa/staff/staff-profiles/musicandaudio/3Howle2.html

Additionally, Sarva Mangalam (2017), which was premiered at Electric Spring, at the University of Huddersfield earlier this year, is performed at the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival on July 17th. It is also being shown at the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC), South Korea, 5-10th August. It is an audio-visual piece in collaboration with video maker Dr Nick Cope (https://nickcopefilm.com/) who currently holds an honorary position at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, China.  At its premiere, the performance was supported with a paper: Avoidance Strategies relating the ideas in the piece to those of Brian Eno and Cornelius Cardew at Ambient@40 held at the same time.

Link to Sarva Mangalamhttps://vimeo.com/255044916

Further, Professor Howle’s piece Phantom Ride (2014) composed with Dr Paul Dibley from Oxford Brookes University, will be performed at ICMC and at WOW- soundMIGRATION, Madrid in September. Link to Phantom Ride: https://soundcloud.com/tim-howle/phantom-ride

SMFA and CMAT now members of the Music Academic Partnership

The School of Music and Fine Art and new Centre for Music and Audio Technology are members of the Music Academic Partnership (MAP) – a ground breaking collaboration between a select number of educational institutions and the membership of UK Music, a campaigning and lobbying group which represents every part of the recorded and live music industry from artists, musicians, songwriters, composers, record labels, publishers, producers and music licensing groups. Its aim is to prepare individuals who want to build their careers in music.

Academic members, who have to be invited to become part of MAP, will benefit from this membership from a number of initiatives that include exclusive networking, collaborative research, a parliamentary programme, rehearsal spaces, and a range of student opportunities, including the BBC Introducing Pilot, MAP Music Technology Prize, access to exclusive Production Days and industry showcases.

 

More info https://www.ukmusic.org/  and https://www.ukmusic.org/skills-academy/music-academic-partnership/

SMFA Music Lecturers win University of Kent Teaching Prize

 

SMFA’s Dr Ruth Herbert and Dr Rich Perks have been awarded a first prize of £3000 Humanities Faculty Teaching Prize 2018 for their innovations regarding music performance teaching at Kent.  The award will constitute extra budget for the teaching on the programmes at SMFA.

The Panel considering the applications comprised Dr Simon Kirchin (Dean), Dr Montserrat Roser-i-Puig (Associate Dean, Education), Fran Beaton (UELT), Dr Vybarr Cregan-Reid (previous prize winner) and Rebecca Bailey (student representative).

In their feedback, the Panel referred to, “Sound pedagogical grounding and evidence of student improvement and engagement” with a “strong use of student feedback” and “particularly liked the reflective element of both the teaching strategy and the application”.

A music psychologist and performer, Dr Herbert is SMFA’s Lecturer in Contemporary and 20th Century Music Performance. Also a Lecturer in Music Performance at SMFA, Dr Perks has extensive live, studio and theatre experience in the commercial industry and has toured internationally with many accomplished artists.

 

Related post: https://www.kent.ac.uk/smfa/news.html?view=2862

SMFA’s Dr Ruth Herbert a trustee for National Youth Jazz Collective

Dr. Ruth Herbert, 2018.

 

Music Psychologist and performer, Dr Ruth Herbert, SMFA’s Lecturer in Contemporary and 20th Century Music Performance, has been invited to become a trustee of the National Youth Jazz Collective.

Founded in 2007, The NYJC supports the creative & educational needs of the young jazz musician, focusing on small group improvisation within a pathway of progression from beginners to young professionals, supporting music education to increase the ability of 8 – 18 year -olds to play by ear in small groups: to learn, improvise, compose, arrange and lead bands.

Commented Dr Herbert: “I am delighted to have been invited to be a trustee for National Youth Jazz Collective. At a time when arts provision (including music) is being sidelined to the point of extinction in schools, the roles of organisations like NYJC are a lifeline & incredibly important in sustaining music provision. NYJC are doing an amazing job of reaching out- through regional workshops across the UK, through their Summer School, and other initiatives – e.g. inclusivity, particularly getting more young women into jazz. Simply giving young people the time and space to connect/experience/understand loads of different musics and have a good time!”

More info http://nationalyouthjazz.co.uk/

 

Related posts: https://www.kent.ac.uk/smfa/news.html?view=2703
And https://www.kent.ac.uk/smfa/news.html?view=2675

Music Lecturers attend prestigious Ivor Novello Awards in London

 

Dr Paul Fretwell and Richard Lightman at the prestigious Ivor Novello Awards, 2018.

 

Fellow composers and SMFA Lecturers Dr Paul Fretwell, Head of School and Senior Lecturer in Music  and Richard Lightman, Lecturer in Music, Director of Recruitment and Admissions, Director of Employability, Year in Industry Coordinator for SMFA and CMAT, attended the prestigious Ivor Novello Awards on Thursday 31st May at the Grosvenor House, Park Lane, London.  The Ivors celebrate, honour and reward excellence in British and Irish songwriting and composing. Presented and judged by music creators they represent the pinnacle of musical achievement and peer recognition.

Commented Richard Lightman, “I was invited to attend the Ivor Novello Awards as a board member of the Council of Music Makers which includes BASCA, MPG, MMF, FAC, and the MU and in my capacity as a member of the Copyright Committee of UK Music advising the government on copyright issues and the impact of Brexit on the Music Industry.  Both SMFA and the University of Kent’s new Centre for Music and Audio Technology are academic partners in BASCA’s educational scheme.”

 

More info about the awards http://theivors.com/the-ivors-2018/

SMFA’s Dr Aki Pasoulas has work selected for International Sound & Music Conference

Dr Aki Pasoulas performing with the MAAST, 2017. Photo by: A. Seddon

 

Dr Aki Pasoulas, Director of Programmes (Music), Director of Education, and Director of MAAST (Music and Audio Arts Sound Theatre) in the School of Music and Fine Art, has his electroacoustic composition Irides accepted in the peer-reviewed conference Sound & Music Computing (smc2018) with the general theme Sonic Crossings. The concert will be held in Limassol, Cyprus, between 4th and 7th July. Keynote speakers include reknowned composer Trevor Wishart.  The website of the conference is http://smc2018.cut.ac.cy/index.html

Irides (which literally means rainbows), was premiered on 24 April 2017 at the Sound of Memory symposium at Goldsmiths Great Hall, London. It has been subsequently selected for performances at the ISSTA (Irish Sound Science and Technology Association) conference at Dundalk, Ireland, at the Sound/Image conference in London, at the ICMC2017 (International Computer Music Conference) in Shanghai, China, and at the Helicotrema festival in Venice, Italy, in a concert curated by Hildegard Westerkamp.

Aki Pasoulas is an electroacoustic composer, whose works are regularly performed worldwide.

 

Also see https://www.kent.ac.uk/smfa/news.html?view=2609

 

SMFA EED graduate Kerri Layton performing at London’s premiere jazz venue

Photo by Gigi Giannella

 

On Tuesday July 17th, from 8pm, SMFA BA (Hons) Event and Experience Design 2011 graduate, Kerri Layton, is performing at legendary Pizza Express Cabaret venue, The Pheasantry (Chelsea), which was nominated for Best Live Music Venue in the London Lifestyle Awards, and considered to be one of London’s major venues of New York-style jazz-singing, musical-theatre-influenced cabaret work.

Kerri is enjoying a successful career as a performer with her live band and as a solo artist, and heads up independent record label Dixiebird Records, http://dixiebirdrecords.bigcartel.com/products which runs live music events all across the capital, featuring some of London’s finest musicians, as well as running her own Creative Event Consultancy.

Her E.P Songs For A Rainy Day is produced by bandleader, saxophonist and composer, Mick Foster and is due for release in July 2018.

More info on the concert and to buy tickets go to https://www.pizzaexpresslive.com/whats-on/miss-kerri-layton

 

Related link:  https://www.kent.ac.uk/smfa/news.html?view=2735

Also see https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/smfa-news/2016/11/16/school-of-music-and-fine-art-alumni-and-students-take-key-roles-at-alexandra-palace-parade/

www.kerrikreates.com

www.misskerrilayton.com

SMFA Postgraduate Presentations on Wednesday 23rd May

“Attention 1” by Moyra Derby, PhD Fine Art, 2018.

 

The annual SMFA Postgraduate Presentations take place Wednesday 23rd May in the Galvanising Shop Performance Space at the campus on the Historic Dockyard Chatham.  The Postgraduate Presentations are an excellent opportunity for SMFA to celebrate the successes of our postgraduates and the contribution they make to the life, work and academic community of the School.

The day will run from 10:30am – 3pm (approx. finishing time) and includes a range of presentations from students studying Music and Fine Art MA and PhD programmes, as well as a participatory tour of one of a Fine Art Degree Show piece from one of our MA Fine Art students.

The schedule is below:

10.40     Alan Stumpenhuson-Payne
PhD Music (Research)
                  Canterbury Calling

11:00     Richard Lightman,
PhD Music and Technology
Mediating Culture from the Producers View:  Cultural Mediation between music producers.

11:30     Georgios Kyriakakis
PhD Music and Technology
Terpsichore: A Software Music Interface for People with Mental Disabilities on the Autism Spectrum

12:00     Moyra Derby
PhD Fine Art
Cross Cuts and Edits: Pictorial Attention Captured, Segmented and Dispersed

12:20     Lunch – Galvanising Shop Café

13:15     Michael Bonner
PhD Music (Research)
How To Hit Yourself On The Head With A Mallet Safely

13:45     Andrea Hepworth
MA Music (Research)
Music-evoked Autobiographical Memories (MEAMs) and the relationship to Nostalgia

13:55     Deborah Abbott
MA Fine Art
The Portrayal of Disability in Art: Brain Matters 

14:20     Olu Taiwo
MA Fine Art
Access Memories 2 – Degree Show Artwork Tour

Olu will meet the audience at 14:10 in the Galvanising Shop Performance Space and take them to his Degree Show artwork.  The tour of the piece starts at 14:20.  Please contact mfapgradmin@kent.ac.uk for information on the location of the artwork if you are intending to go there directly for 14:20.

There will be an opportunity for the audience to ask questions after each presentation and a lunch will be provided for presenting students and audience members at which further discussion can take place.

If you would like to attend, please RSVP to mfapgradmin@kent.ac.uk or via Facebook

 

Image credit: Attention 1 by Moyra Derby, PhD Fine Art – more about Moyra’s work here https://www.kent.ac.uk/smfa/news.html?view=2695