Affiliated Researchers
Learn more about our members and external partners.
Benjamin Hackbarth is the director of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Composition and Technology and the Head of Composition at the University of Liverpool where he writes music for instruments and electronic sound. Ben has been named composer in residence for musical research and composer in research at IRCAM three times since 2010. He was also a composer affiliated with the Center for Research and Computing in the Arts (CRCA) and a Sonic Arts Researcher at CalIT2. He has had residencies at Cité des Arts, Centre Internationale de Récollets, Akademie Schloss Solitude and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. Notable performances include those by the Arditti String Quartet, Ensemble InterContemporain, the New York New Music Ensemble, Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain, and Ensemble SurPlus. In addition to writing music, Ben does methodological research. He co-authored and maintains a widely-used creative tool for concatenative sound synthesis called AudioGuide and is currently working on novel MIR visualisation techniques to afford high-level compositional control of sound mosaicing. He also works with microprocessors to create wireless, low-latency controllers for performers (e.g. Decryption in Three Parts).
Jonathan Crossley is a composer, performer, and Lecturer in Music Technology at the University of Liverpool where he leads courses in hardware hacking, hyper instruments, and free improvisation. He has a specialised interest in poly-genre musical cultures, creative practices, and mediative technologies. Using the guitar, he explores stylistic outings from classical to improvisation, jazz through electronic and developing instrumental and system innovations including the innovative ‘Cyber-guitar system’ which explored technologically enabled performance practices. He has released a range of albums, ‘Dreams of Skilia’ (2001), ‘My Friends and I’ (2004), ‘Funk for the Shaolin Monk’ (2007), ‘Got Funk Will Travel’ (2009). ‘Funk for the Shaolin Monk’ and ‘Got Funk Will Travel’,‘The Settlement’ (2017), Blipz (2018), ‘Deep Spacer – 433 Eros’ (2020), 3 Cities (2015), four ‘son0_morph’ themed albums (2021), Inhale (2022) and Bree Street (2023). He has toured extensively with performances in South Africa, Turkey, Spain, Belgium, Slovakia, and The Czech Republic.
Matthew Fairclough is a composer and the Director of Music Technology at Liverpool. He lectures on the creative applications of Music Technologies in both Popular and Classical music. His research is practice-based focusing on composition for acoustic instruments with real-time electronic processing. His most recent work explores the control and generation of electronic sound, video and computer graphics using data taken in real-time from an instrumentalist’s performance. In 2014 Matthew founded Open Circuit Festival, a festival of new music, sonic art and audio-visual media, which runs annually at the University of Liverpool. He regularly works with high profile performers, composers and organisations. These have included performers such as Joanna MacGregor, Andy Sheppard, Joby Burgess, John Kenny and Oliver Coates, and the composers Jonathan Harvey and Luciano Berio. He has also collaborated as a sound designer with many ensembles, orchestras and arts organisations including Britten Sinfonia, Psappha, Ensemble 10/10, Smith Quartet, London Sinfonietta, SoundUK and Sound Intermedia. In 2015, alongside composer and artist Kathy Hinde, he co-taught the Composition for Multimedia course at Dartington International Summer School and again in 2016 with composer Sarah Angliss. Matthew has enjoyed a long collaboration with percussionist Joby Burgess video artist Kathy Hinde through the trio Powerplant. Mathew’s work with Joby was the subject of an Impact Case Study for the REF2014.
Paul Turowski is a composer, performer, and Senior Lecturer in Music for Digital Games at the University of Liverpool. He also serves as Subject Lead for the Game Design and Game Design Studies programmes. Paul's research examines intersections of game design/gameplay and musical composition/performance. This includes the employment of digital games as interactive musical scores as well as the creation of video games that afford musical authorship to the player. His creative work has been performed by ensembles such as Dither, Ekmeles, and the Ligeti Quartet; has been presented at events such as the annual conference of the Society of Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States, the Kyma International Sound Symposium, and the International Conference on Technologies of Notation and Representation; and has been featured on such websites as Cycling74.com and animatednotation.com.
Lee Tsang, Head of Classical Music Performance, is Director of the MMus Music Performance and Education and Global Opportunities Lead for both Music and Games Design. He is a conductor, baritone and composer of words for music, as well as a music analyst with diverse research interests. Spending much of his career creating, curating and performing new work for his organisation Sinfonia UK Collective (aka Portumnus Ensemble and Hull Sinfonietta), Lee has championed new music in activities that have involved creating new texts and contexts; his outputs for new music are wide-ranging, including animation/film, multi-composer collected editions, theatricalised concerts/productions, performing translations, and lyric writing or poetic responses. Much work since 2014 has explored musical spaces where classical, jazz and the ‘indigenous’ may meet, and has focused on collaborative crossover music in work that has featured on BBC, CBC, Apple Music, and at festivals such as Ottawa International Chamberfest, Festival International Hautes-Laurentides, the Festival of the Sound and Guelph Musicfest. Lee has contributed as researcher/producer/editor/writer/vocal consultant to two albums that have received Juno nominations (K52 and Steinway labels).
Richard Worth is a Lecturer in Popular Music Composition at Liverpool and a flute player, composer and arranger, who in 1989 left the UK for New York City. There he launched a career in music, founding a jazz/latin/funk outfit called Groove Collective, recording six albums (while he was still with them).They toured around the world, including performances at The North Sea and Montreux jazz festivals, and large rock venues such as Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Colorado, as well as making appearances on American and European TV. During this time he also worked as a session player often on hip hop and dance records. He then returned to the UK, and completed a PhD in composition. His Hendrix inspired string quartet, “….but those unheard are sweeter” was performed by the Edinburgh Quartet at Kings Place in October 2009, and at the same concert, he performed Vassilis Kitsos’s ‘Niobi’ for solo flute; both pieces were subsequently broadcast on Radio 3’s ‘Hear and Now’. In 2010 The Edinburgh Contemporary Music Ensemble performed his Trombone Concerto, and he frequently performs in various musical contexts, from salsa and jazz to contemporary classical music.
Affiliated postgraduate researchers
Project: Practice-based research into new methods of synergising pitch and timbre — this multimodal PhD project explores the boundaries between pitch and electronic timbre control, focusing on manipulating timbre to modify perceptual characteristics of pitch harmonies. It includes compositions, research, an audio perception survey, and new tools made in Python and Max MSP. This work extends previous studies by using electronic processing to manipulate roughness (dissonance) in pitch harmonies while testing perceptual outcomes in various musical contexts. Potentially, the tools could enable new creative possibilities, linking to my interest in bridging gaps between audio production and composing techniques.
Supervisors: Paul Turowski, Ben Hackbarth, Eduardo Coutinho
Project: Murdering the lone composer: A large-scale exploration into the potential of ‘band-style’ collaborative compositional systems – featuring an interdisciplinary amalgamation of musical backgrounds, aesthetics, techniques and ability. Burke has worked closely with several professional ensembles to perform his music; some of which include: The Fidelio Trio, The Royal String Quartet, Red Note Ensemble, Quatuor Danel, Ensemble 10:10 and most recently Riot Ensemble.
Supervisors: Richard Worth & Ben Hackbarth
Joe Caulton
Project: Using open notation to explore the relationships surrounding the physical artefact of musical scores – This is a practice-based MRes project the main output of which will be a portfolio of musical compositions. Through this project I hope to develop my personal creative practice by finding new ways to meaningfully communicate musical ideas using open notation. Furthermore, I hope to explore the often complex relationships surrounding the musical score and how these influence the expression of musical ideas.
Supervisors: Ben Hackbarth, Kenneth Smith
Project: Tracking Trailer Audio: Researching Trailer Augmentation Sonic Devices — my work tracks developments in the current trailer music model and examines how trailer sonic devices take on multifunctional roles in trailer composition. Sonic devices such as risers, alarms and pings can present themselves as music, sound design, or a blurring of the two, functioning at both diegetic and non-diegetic levels. My project seeks and identifies trailer augmentation sonic devices (TASD’s) and provides an insight into how composers can incorporate them into composition across a wider variety of compositional practice.
Supervisors: Andrew Simmons, Rob Strachan
Project: Music As Touch: rethinking the Composer-Performer-Audience hierarchy through a practice-based exploration of tactile approaches to music making and engagement – Rachael is currently undertaking a practice-based composition project funded by the NWCDTP which will explore new ways to notate and musically interrogate the relationship between touch and performance. The resulting compositions will be guided by three interrelated aims: 1) encouraging substantive and sustained contributions from performers and the audience; 2) breaking down the barriers of participation with respect to performative complexity, and; 3) engendering wider community engagement within contemporary music.
Supervisors: Ben Hackbarth, Jonathan Crossley
Project: Immersive Nostalgia — This project investigates audience nostalgia as evoked by original sample-based audio-visual compositions presented in surround sound concerts. As such, the research engages with literature on nostalgia, plunderphonics, and musical borrowing to examine this topic. Surveys are utilised to assess the success of the composition’s nostalgic qualities. Synthesising all elements of this project has developed intriguing insights regarding the inter-disciplinary investigation of nostalgia.
Supervisors: Jonathan Crossley, Ben Hackbarth
Project Title: Hearing with Difference: Experimental Sonic and Live Art Expressions of Aural Diversity through the Tinnitus Archive – Through a practice-based approach, the PhD seeks to address the under-researched intersection of music with tinnitus explored through new compositions, sound installations, and live performances. The project draws on collaborations with biophysicists, musicians, glass blowers and pe rcussion makers, and will be underpinned by interviews with individuals experiencing chronic tinnitus. While we do not have control over the opening or closing of our ear(s), it should not prevent us from playing with and subverting our expectations around interacting with our hearing mechanisms. With this research, I embrace the noise (tinnitus) as a tool for critical reflection and artistic inspiration.
Supervisors: Jenn Kirby, Hannah Little
Project Title: Exploring homage in electroacoustic music: Exposing the hidden histories and work of early women electronic composers in Europe (1940-75) — this practice-based PhD investigates the concept of homage in electroacoustic music, as a means to create new compositions that shine a spotlight upon forgotten and marginalised women composers who composed music in Europe during the founding period of electronic music from 1940 to 1975. The musical material and creative decisions for my compositions are built upon sourcing early women electronic composers' stories and experiences through collecting their oral history, in addition to analysing their music and primary sources belonging to them. Collecting interview data is an essential part of designing and composing these pieces, enabling me to imprint these women's voices, memories and personal accounts in these compositions.
Supervisors: Oli Carman, Lisa Coulton
Project Title: Playing with Place: Natural phenomena and environment as a pathway towards meaningful response in interactive electroacoustic composition.
Supervisors: Matt Fairclough, Jonathan Crossley
External Partners
Riot Ensemble - 2022-2025 “Ensemble in Residence for Research”
Riot is not a single thing or organisation with any narrow or focused interest. In fact, the group has specifically been built to highlight the eclectic nature of what's being made in the contemporary world today. What is consistent throughout the group is an incredibly high level of musicianship (on par with the top European ensembles) and a commitment to the work created. We rehearse deeply, invest fully in collaborations, and passionately advocate for all the work we put on stage.
Jonathan Aasgaard - cello
Norwegian cellist Jonathan Aasgaard is one of UK's most versatile cellists, as soloist, chamber musician, studio musician, orchestral principal, teacher and explorer of new music. Aasgaard was appointed Principal Cello of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in 1999 and has since performed more than 40 works for cello and orchestra with the RLPO. He is regularly invited as a guest principal with several leading British and European orchestras and is principal cello of the John Wilson Orchestra. A dedicated teacher, Aasgaard is Professor of Cello at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.
David Braid - piano
Hailed as ‘one of Canada's true Renaissance men’ (The Ottawa Citizen) composer, improviser, and pianist, David Braid is a ten-time nominee and four-time recipient of Canada's highest music prize (Juno Award). He is also a Steinway Artist, Composer-in-Residence for Sinfonia UK Collective, and Guest Artist of the Danish National Music Conservatory. His first choral composition, Corona Divinae Misericordiae, was nominated for Classical Album of the Year in Canada, and his first film score won two CSAs (Canadian Screen Awards) for ‘Best Original Score’ and ‘Best Original Song’. A brief foray into writing dramatic music included arrangements and compositions for the Chet Baker-inspired bio-pic Born to Be Blue starring Ethan Hawke; Braid's jazz score was praised for its ‘contemporary patina without sacrificing period authenticity’ (The Times). Braid also received a CSA nomination for his orchestra score to the 2022 film, Delia’s Gone starring Stephan James and Marisa Tomei. He is a recipient of the Ontario Foundation for the Arts’ prestigious prize: Paul de Hueck and Norman Walford Career Achievement Award for Keyboard Artistry.
Gilbert Nouno - 2018 Composer in Residence
Composer, sound artist, perfomer and researcher at IRCAM, Gilbert Nouno lives and works in Paris. He received the Rome Prize Fellowship from the Académie de France à Rome Villa Médicis in 2011 and the Kyoto Villa Kujoyama Fellowship in 2007. His music draws inspiration from visual and digital art and design, spanning notated and improvised forms. Gilbert Nouno is professor of music composition at the Royal College of Music in London, and DAAD invited professor for sonic arts in Detmold-Germany for 2016-17. He teaches live electronics and computer musics design at IRCAM and at Goldsmiths University in London where he is currently Visiting Research Fellow and was invited as a sound and composition lecturer at the 2014 International Summer Course for New Music in Darmstadt.
Pixels Ensemble - 2018 Ensemble in Residence
Pixels Ensemble is a collective of established chamber music players with a shared passion for performing the finest repertoire, from the classical period to the present day. Vastly experienced and versatile, the group appears in a wide range of combinations and line-ups, lending itself to innovative programming and enabling huge variety within individual concerts. They will be working with postgraduate composers on a concert of works for the 2018 Open Circuit Festival of New Music at the University of Liverpool.