current projects
caprices esquisses: this is a set of pieces I wrote during the first covid lockdown. The solitude led to thinking more about solo repertoire than I had in quite a long time, having focused more on collaborative endeavours. I began to study Paganini again, and also the wonderful four caprices of Grazyna Bacewicz. I set myself a challenge to compose some pieces using some of the unstable but beautifully inherent characteristics of the violin that I use a lot in improvisation such as harmonics and subharmonics, in such a way that I could experiment with how much control and reliability I could develop. I performed these pieces in 2022 as part of my tour promoted by The Night With in Scotland, Ireland, and France, and more recently in Montreal in a shared concert with the wonderful Emilie Girard-Charest. I am in the process of recording them for a solo album which will be released in October 2023, and I am working on a paper focusing on indeterminacy, fragility and agency in performance.
PhD research
PhD thesis: Determinacy, indeterminacy, and collaboration in contemporary
music-making
This thesis is structured around three key phases in the process of collaborative
music-making - composition, preparation, and performance - examining
the function of indeterminacy at each stage, and the way in which musical factors
are determined. At what point in the creative process a musical decision
is made, the path chosen, and critically, by whom the decision is taken, are
all explored in the context of a portfolio of pieces performed and recorded as
part of this practice-led research. The portfolio comprises recordings of projects
undertaken with composers, as well as pre-existing repertoire, and the written
commentary explores my creative role as a performer in relation to that of the
composers and the other performers I have worked with. Practical issues faced
in collaboration, practice, and performance are dealt with, as are questions of
musicality, and the notion of success in musical
performance.
Read full
thesis
Below are links to all of the recordings in my PhD
portfolio. More details, including programme notes, can be found at
the beginning of the thesis.
Audio recordings:
KUBOV album
Emma Lloyd and Karin Schistek: Improvisation
Lutosławski: Partita
Matthew Sergeant: bet denagel
Stockhausen: Verbindung
Matthew Whiteside: Ulation
Matthew Whiteside: Solo for viola d'amore and
electronics
Video recordings:
Jess Aslan: 104, mechanica, and softly, softly
Matthew Sergeant: [kiss]
Ian Vine: [2520] Individual works for violin
Interactive:
Earle Brown: December 1952 (virtual
installation)
Lastly, here are links to the appendices:
Appendix A.2: violin
technique
Appendix A.3: photographs
Scores or score samples can be made available on request with
consent from the composer/publisher