Wednesday 14th February, 2019
Butchart Hall, University of Aberdeen

Staff and student composers from CMAT and SMFA have been invited to the University of Aberdeen to present their works at the eleventh concert of the Rediscoveries series, a joint project between the two universities. Rediscoveries offers a series of performances of electroacoustic music and sound art events, presented by SERG (Sound Emporium Research Group) from the Department of Music, University of Aberdeen.

Thursday 6th December
6pm
Historic Dockyard Chatham, Galvanising Shop

How do blind people make sense of the world through other senses? What happens when the visual is removed from ensemble music making? Tactile Trio are an ensemble of sighted and partially sighted musicians, who create and perform new music working under blindfold and in darkened spaces. Without visual notation, they work with improvisation and tactile scores – where music is created from a sense of touch, and darkness offers a world rich with other sensory possibilities.

Join Tactile Trio for their Medway debut at the Historic Dockyard Chatham, part of SMFA’s celebrations of Arts and Disabilities. The event will feature a performance of tactile scores and devised works, plus a pre-performance talk and demonstrations.

Tactile Trio are:
Adrian Lee – guitar, composer, formerly Musical Director for Royal Shakespeare Company
James Ridson – recorders, Para-orchestra member
Jackie Walduck (Leader) – vibraphone, composer, SMFA Music Lecturer.

This event is FREE to attend. Email: J.Walduck@kent.ac.uk to book your place.

Vote 100: Celebrating Women Composers will mark the centenary of women gaining the vote through democracy in action. This concert, organised by MOOT, will take place on Saturday 17^th November at St George’s Church in Brighton. The night will feature music by a diverse range of women composers, including Lecturer in Music Performance Ruth Herbert’s piano trio, TableMusic.

Visit Eventbrite for more information and to book.

Professor of Contemporary Music, Tim Howle’s ‘Globus Hystericus’ (AV, fixed media, 7’15”) was performed in Oslo on 7^th November. The piece is a collaborative work with the video artist, Nick Cope.

The event was hosted by the Norwegian electroacoustic music group, Electric Audio Unit (EAU). EAU performs works from around the world and specialises in immersive spatial audio concerts, cutting edge 3D experiences and spatialisation performance.

4^th October saw the launch of telectroacoustic music record label Sonos Localia. The label specialises in binaural renditions of sound spatialisation and its first release is a composition from Music Lecturer, Dr Aki Pasoulas.

Aki’s latest piece, ‘Irides’, was performed live and recorded using the dummy head method. The releases features on Sonos Localia compilation, Loudspeaker Music For Headphones, which comprises 13 tracks of cutting-edge electro-acoustic music presented in immersive binaural sound.

Irides was also recently selected to be presented at CIME/ICEM MUSICACOUSTICA General Assembly at the Central Conservatoire of Music in Beijing, China. It has previously been performed at the Sound of Memory symposium in London, at the ISSTA conference in Ireland, at the Sound/Image in London, and at the ICMC2017 in China.

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 17^th. It is also being shown at the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC), South Korea, 5-10^th 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 Mangalam: https://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

Music Psychologist and performer, Dr Ruth Herbert, SMFA’s Lecturer in Contemporary and 20^th 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

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/

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