Dr Benjamin Tassie

• Microtonality

• Long-form composition and music of minimal means

• Electronics, including Ableton Live, analogue synthesis, studio recording, and custom electronics

• Instrument design

• Ecological sound-art

• Early Music instruments and Post-HIP practices

• PhD, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire

• MMus (Distinction), Royal College of Music

• BMus (First Class Honours), King’s College London & Royal Academy of Music

• PhD supervision

• MMus Contemporary Music Concepts and Practices

• MMus Media Analysis for Composers

• BMus2 Composition Studies

• BMus2 Core Skills

• One-to-one composition

• Research and Innovation Associate (2027–2029) — Sonic Heritage and Environmental Change on England’s East Coast, 1718–present — Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, University of Oxford, Manchester Metropolitan University, National Trust, and Suffolk Archives

• Project Lead (2025–2026) — Resonant Archaeologies: VR, Interactive Media, and Studio-mediated Bass Viol Performance as Tools for Re-embodied Musical Experience — Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Birmingham City University, and Thüringer Bachwochen & Philip Loubser Foundation, Berlin

• Resident Researcher (2024–2025) — The Augmented Harpsichord — Guildhall School of Music and Drama

• Research Contributor (Commissioned Artist) (2021–2024) — Cyborg Soloists — Royal Holloway, University of London

Journal Articles

• Tassie, B. & Kanga, Z. [forthcoming] (2026) ‘Augmented Organs, Cyborg Soloists: The Hyperorgan and Re-sacralised Sociality in Earth of the Slumbering and Liquid Trees’, Contemporary Music Review
• Tassie, B. (2021) ‘Post-HIP: New Music for Old Instruments in the Twenty-First Century’, Tempo 75(297), pp. 61–70

Recordings

• Tassie, B. & Kanga, Z. (2025) Earth of the Slumbering and Liquid Trees [CD]. London, UK: Flung
• Tassie, B. (2025) Bad Death Ghosts. Montreal, Québec: Musique moléculaire
• Tassie, B. (2024) ‘Glass Coloured’, on Savan, J. & Dooley, J. The Polyphonic Cornett [digital]. Birmingham, UK: Birmingham Record Company/NMC Recordings
• Tassie, B. (2023) A Ladder is Not the Only Kind of Time [CD]. Birmingham, UK: Birmingham Record Company/NMC Recordings
• Tassie, B. (2018) ‘Sun’, on Juice Vocal Ensemble, Snow Queens [CD]. Spaunton, UK: Resonus Classics

Selected Compositions

• O Suns—O Grass of Graves (2026) — David Zucchi — Concert work for saxophone and live electronic processing. Funded by Vaughan Williams Foundation. Premiere at Crucible Theatre, Sheffield (November 2026)

• Earth of Shine and Dark Mottling (2026) — Liam Byrne — Concert work, recording, and VR video for three microtonal bass viols

• Earth of the Slumbering and Liquid Trees (2024) — Zubin Kanga — Concert work for sampled historical organs, MIDI keyboards, and ROLI Seaboard Rise 2 MPE keyboard. Premiered at The National Gallery, London (January 2024); additional performances at Het Orgelpark, Amsterdam (March 2025) and Glasgow Cathedral Festival (2026)

• A Ladder is Not the Only Kind of Time (2023) — Benjamin Tassie, Rebecca Lee, & Rob Bentall — Album, film, and interactive smartphone app for water-powered historical instruments, lap steel guitar, Medieval rebec, bass viol, and Nyckelharpa

• Glass Coloured (2023) — Jamie Savan — Concert work for 3D-printed Renaissance cornett and live electronic processing

• Quartet for a Landscape (2021) — Nordic Affect — Concert work and filmed installation for Baroque strings and harpsichord. Premiered at Mengi, Reykjavik (16 October)

• Accrete (2021) — Mary Duggan Architects — Studio composition for multitracked Medieval rebec and two sopranos. Premiered as sound installation at London Festival of Architecture (19 June)

• Solo for Computer and Tape (2020) — The National Gallery, London — Filmed installation for reel-to-reel tape machines, analogue synthesisers, laptop, and guitar pedals

• British Baroque: Power & Illusion (2020) — Tate Britain — Concert performance for bass viol, baryton, analogue synthesisers, and live electronics

• Victoria: Woman & Crown (2019) — Historic Royal Palaces — Multichannel installation soundtrack for exhibition at Kensington Palace. Recorded by Ligeti Quartet, Siwan Rhys, and Jonathan Mayer

• After Violence (2018) — Royal Academy of Arts, Dulwich Picture Gallery, & the National Trust — Music-theatre performance for analogue synthesisers, lute, soprano, and drag queen. Performed by Benjamin Tassie, Ella Taylor, Sam Brown, and Rhys Hollis. Premiered at Sutton House (11 August)

• Salvage (2018) — National Opera Studio — Aria for countertenor and piano as part of 12:40, celebrating the National Opera Studio’s 40th anniversary. Text by Jaqueline Saphra. Premiered at Hoxton Hall (15 June)

• Five Pop Songs for Orchestra (2017) — Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment — Arrangements of songs by Björk, Radiohead, and others for period orchestra. Premiered at Kensington Palace (26 August)

• Silvertown (2017) — Musarc — New choir work performed in a disused factory in East London. Text by Annie Freud. Premiered at London Festival of Architecture (10 June)

• Sun (2017) — Juice Vocal Ensemble — Song for three voices. Text by Annie Freud. Premiered at Tate Modern (8 January) with live broadcast on BBC Radio 3

• Body (2016) — Liam Byrne & Rambert Dance — New music for bass viol and electronics with dance. Premiered at Wilderness Festival (5 August)

Conference Papers & Invited Talks

• Tassie, B. (2026) ‘Closing Remarks’, Organ Symposium Orgelpark 2026: OrganCore/Sharing Sounds [invited talk]. Het Orgelpark, Amsterdam, 4–6 June

• Bowler, L., Jones, C., & Tassie, B. (2025) ‘Composing the Landscape in the Twenty-first Century’, Rethinking Landscape: Environment, Place, and Heritage in British Music Studies. Symposium of the North American British Music Studies Association [invited panel]. Online, 10–12 July

• Savan, J. & Tassie, B. (2025) ‘Microtonal Cornett and Live Electronics: Expanding the Historical Performance Practice of the Cornett in Glass Coloured’, AEC European Platform for Artistic Research in Music (EPARM) Conference. Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, 2–5 April

• Tassie, B. (2024) ‘A Ladder is Not the Only Kind of Time as Case Study for “Historically-Informed Ecological Sound-art”’, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Public Research Seminar [invited talk]. Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, 26 November

• Tassie, B. (2024) ‘Intimate Listening: Nature, Place, and Music in A Ladder is Not the Only Kind of Time’, RMA Music and/as Process Study Group Conference: Environment, Space & Place. University of Glasgow, 28–30 June

• Tassie, B. (2024) ‘Approaching an Understanding of “Historically-Informed Ecological Sound-Art”: A Ladder is Not the Only Kind of Time as Case Study for a Nonmodern Ecological Art’, AEC European Platform for Artistic Research in Music (EPARM) Conference. Academy of Music, Ljubljana, 20–23 March

• Tassie, B. (2023) ‘Augmenting Historical Organs: The Use of Creative Technologies in Earth of the Slumbering and Liquid Trees’, Music Ex Machina: Methods & Methodologies for Technology-centred Practice-based Research in Contemporary Music Symposium. Royal Holloway, University of London, 16 June

• Tassie, B. & Underwood, S. (2022) ‘A Ladder is Not the Only Kind of Time: Water-Powered Historical Instruments as Ecological Intervention’, Twelfth International Conference on Music Since 1900. Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, 17–18 June

• Tassie, B. (2022) ‘Noticing a Landscape: Historical Instruments, Ecology, and Digital Media’, AEC European Platform for Artistic Research in Music (EPARM) Conference. Royal Academy of Music, London, 7–9 April

• Tassie, B. et al. (2019) ‘Sixty Years of Electronic Music: Female Pioneers and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop’, V&A Museum Friday Late: Sonic Boom [invited panel: chair]. V&A, London, 22 February

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