University News Last updated 15 November
Get to know who is driving RBC in this fortnightly feature, Meet the RBC leadership team. Our first call is the Composition Department, which is led by Professor Joe Cutler. He shares how life is never dull working with students, which constantly renews his own creative antenna.
What are the core skills or areas of expertise that you bring to RBC?
As a working professional composer of several decades, my core skills and expertise are drawn from that experience. Leading the Composition Department with my colleague Professor Michael Wolters, our role is to guide our students as they embark on their own creative journeys. This can be through teaching, mentoring, and devising and realising a busy range of practice-based projects that replicate working within a professional context while allowing for experimentation within a safe space.
What have been your highlights since you started at RBC?
There have been so many and each year brings new ones. Probably the greatest highlight is experiencing the work created by our own students over the academic year. Some of the final projects that they have created over the years have been quite extraordinary. Life is never dull and working with our students constantly renews my own creative antenna.
What have been the most challenging issues that you’ve had to discuss and take a view on so far?
Working through the global pandemic was very challenging of course. But we did find ways to be creative, developing online collaborations with artists and institutions around the world, which we’ve continued to build on.
What are your ambitions for RBC?
The world of composition and the context in which it sits is constantly changing, so the way we prepare our students for that world requires regular review. Our ambition is to continue developing composers/creative artists who can challenge, surprise, invent, educate and make a positive contribution to wider society. At the same time, through our own research, the Composition Department aims to be a leading part of society’s ongoing creative conversation.
What do you do outside of the role when you are not working?
When I’m not working, my greatest joy is spending time with my family.