Research

Conservatoire Composition Cluster

Research within the Conservatoire Composition Cluster, headed jointly by Professor Joe Cutler and Professor Michael Wolters, covers a wide aesthetic and performative spectrum, from score-based and improvisational work through to advanced computer-based research into the live interaction of digital technologies with human performers.

Although the research underpinning compositional practice is individual and personalised and the Conservatoire’s composition staff positively celebrate and encourage diversity of expression, the cluster nevertheless enjoys a strongly bond of artistic endeavour.

Staff share a desire to challenge traditional institutional preconceptions regarding the nature, content and presentation of new music, especially with respect to experimental venues, non-elite content, mixed-media creativity and the cultivation of new audiences. Rather, they explore, examine and document the potential, difference and impact of work which is realised through alternative and more independently mediated creative processes.

Key research concerns and issues include:

• Alternatives to the traditional concert hall
• Composer-led collectives
• The composer as performer
• Queerness and Othering
• Interdisciplinary composition
• Composition with minimal means
• Control of dissemination of our works, for example, through our own label: Birmingham Record Company
• Community engagement as artistic practice
• Conceptual approaches

Key staff

• Professor Joe Cutler
• Professor Michael Wolters
• Dr Seán Clancy
• Dr Andrew Hamilton
• Howard Skempton
• Dr Simon Hall
• Dr Ed Bennett

For other composition staff, see the Teaching staff tab.

PhD Students and Awards (2014-)