Composition

Durham has been a leading centre for Composition and new music research in the UK for the past half-century. Our five staff are internationally pre-eminent in their fields, which cover innovative acoustic composition (orchestral, chamber and vocal); electroacoustic, live electronic and computer music; and contemporary music performance (two of our staff currently also direct world-renowned new music ensembles EXAUDI and Ives Ensemble). All our staff are busy working composers, their music commissioned, performed and recorded worldwide.

Students have the benefit of a wide range of supported activities, including masterclasses, concerts, and discussion series. We believe strongly that you should hear as much of the music you create as possible. We bring some of the world’s leading new music performers to Durham to work with our postgraduate composers: as well as our ‘house’ bands EXAUDI (UK), Ensemble7Bridges (UK) and Ives Ensemble (NL), in the last few years we have worked with Explore Ensemble (UK), Loadbang (US), Roche/Zöllner (UK/Ger), Alpaca (NO), Ben Smith (UK) and Liam Byrne (US/Ger) among many others. For those who compose with music technology, we have three studios and a dedicated computer room with more than a dozen high-performance computers.

The new music community in Durham is highly active: we hold a regular Composition Reading Group, and lectures from guest composers often feature in the department’s main research forum. The department also hosts two concert series, MUSICON and Klang, both of which regularly promote new music. Further afield, the University has its own student-led new music ensemble, and there is a dynamic and diverse new music scene both in Durham and in nearby Newcastle-Gateshead.

We actively support and encourage our research students in pursuing opportunities outside the University. In recent years our students have engaged in a wide range of activities across the UK and internationally, including Composer-in-Residence at the Southbank Centre (London), Sound and Music "Adopt A Composer" scheme, and premieres in Canada, Europe and elsewhere