Conservatoire Composition Cluster

Description

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
Interdisciplinary composition
Composition with minimal means
Control of dissemination of members' works, for example, through the Cluster's own label: Birmingham Record Company
Community engagement as artistic practice