Current Research ProjectsPHD Students and Staff

WELCOME from Neil Heyde

This magazine is a snapshot of the research connected to the doctoral programme at the Academy. Rather than abstracts or detailed descriptions of our projects we felt it would be more useful to give an indication of the kinds of questions that motivate us. If you would like to find out more about any of the individual projects – or the people driving them – please refer to the back page of this newsletter, or write to postgrad@ram.ac.uk. Research outside the doctoral programme is accessible through individual staff profiles on the website and the research pages.

In different ways, we are all seeking to reveal the kinds of knowledge that creative practice generates and we meet regularly to test ideas and get feedback. One possible criterion for originality in research is defined formally in the Academy’s doctoral regulations as ‘artistic insight at an appropriate level’. Understanding what we mean by high-level artistry and revealing the nature and character of the insight it affords is central to the Academy’s core mission to enrich musical culture.

The Academy’s doctoral programme provides a collaborative environment for musicians to share and critique working practices, and a framework for developing long-term projects that will drive distinctive careers. It also offers a research and development engine for the Academy’s taught programmes.

There are three critical factors in our selection of projects: artistic level; the specificity of the links between student and project; and the extent to which the work could make a valuable contribution to our environment. Most doctoral students do not have the kind of one-to-one principal study lessons typical of taught degrees but work closely with at least one experienced supervisor who helps to manage and guide the project and who assists in organising the necessary support network. We do provide one-to-one lesson support where appropriate to individual students or projects.

NewsComposition professor David Sawer wrote a chamber work Coachman Chronos for ‘Objects at an Exhibition’, a commissioning project by NMC Recordings, in partnership with the Aurora Orchestra and the National Science Museum. He also composed a new work April \ March for the London Sinfonietta, which was premiered at the BBC Proms in 2016. Olivia Sham organised a three-day conference at the Royal Academy of Music, titled ‘The Historical Pianist: A Conference-Festival’ in April, 2016. Olivia also released her CD Liszt: the Art of Remembering on Avie Records in 2015. David Gorton’s audio-visual collaboration with pianist Roderick Chadwick and photographer Claire Shovelton, Burgh Castle, received its first performances at The Forge (London) and the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in 2016, with CHROMA ensemble. David Gorton is currently preparing a new CD of works that draw on the music of John Dowland, with Longbow Ensemble and guitar player Stefan Östersjö for release on Toccata Classics in Spring 2017. Neil Heyde has recently given keynote addresses at the Conservatoire for Dance and Drama conference in London and the International Performance Studies 2016 conference, where he was joined by rest of the Kreutzer Quartet, Michael Finnissy and Laurie Bamon, a recent graduate of the Academy’s PhD programme who was commissioned to write a quartet for the conference – All the Summer Seabirds. Composer Ruta Vitkauskaite was awarded a 2016 Golden Stage Cross Award in Lithuania for her collaborative spatial mono-opera Confessions. Head of Composition Philip Cashian is composing a new piano concerto The book of Ingenious Devices for pianist Huw Watkins and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The work will be conducted by recently appointed Richard Rodney Bennett Professor of Composition, Oliver Knussen. The work will be premiered in early 2017. In 2016, pianist An-Ting Chang developed a new work The Tenant, and was invited to take part in Marine Theatre’s ‘R & D by the Sea’ residency scheme (for which she received the support of Arts Council England and Help Musicians). David Coonan’s new work Vain Prayer was premiered by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, marking the culmination of his Sound and Music ‘Embedded Composer Residency’ in 2016. David has also been awarded the Irish Arts Council’s 16x16 ‘Next Generation’ Award, as part of the Council’s 1916 commemorative celebration.

Gerardo Gozzi’s new composition La part de l’enfer for voices and ensemble was premiered by Exaudi and Talea at the Royaumont Abbey in Paris in September 2016. In 2016, Daniel-Ben Pienaar performed a live cycle of Mozart’s Keyboard-and-Violin sonatas with Peter Sheppard. He is also preparing a projected CD of arrangements of English Baroque music by Tim Jones for trumpet and piano. PhD composers Gareth Moorcraft, Rubens Askenar, Freya Waley-Cohen and Robert Peate will take part in the Academy’s first exchange project with the Tokyo University of the Arts. They will compose new works for traditional Japanese instruments, and will travel to Tokyo for workshops and a performance of their pieces in November 2016. Composition student Gareth Moorcraft has been awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize 2016. He will compose a new chamber work for players from the Philharmonia Orchestra, which will be premiered as part of their ‘Music of Today’ concert series in 2017. Senior professor of composition Simon Bainbridge has composed a new concerto for jazz bass and large ensemble, in collaboration with world-renowned bassist Eddie Gomez. The work was premiered by Gomez and the Britten Sinfonia at the Barbican, London. Roderick Chadwick has recently completed the final draft of Messiaen’s Catalogue d’oiseaux - from Conception to Performance with Professor Peter Hill, and it is now being prepared for publication by Cambridge University Press. The new work Del Buen Callar by composition student Rubens Askenar was commissioned by Auditory of Tenerif for the Quantum ensemble. It was premiered in 2016 for the concert series ‘Nude Iberia,’ along with pieces by Falla, Albeniz and Granados. Pianist and 3rd year PhD student Abigail Sin will present lecture recitals at The Performers(‘) Present Symposium in Singapore and the ‘Musicology applied to the Concert: Performance Studies at Work’ Conference in Spain in October and December 2016. Her performance activities in 2016 include concerts for the Park Lane Group in London and the Yellow Barn Festival in the USA.

Composer Robert Peate’s new Violin Concerto was premiered by the LPO, with Vesselin Gellev performing the solo violin part, as part of the LPO/Foyle Future Firsts series in July 2016. Robert has also received a commission to write a new work for the 2017 Presteigne Festival. Noemi Gyori and Katalin Koltai’s ‘Classical flute and guitar collection,’ comprising of the transcriptions of three Haydn Sonatas and the Mozart D Minor Fantasy, will be published by Doblinger Music Publishing Austria, starting from December 2016.

At the Cello Biennale 2016 (held in Amsterdam) Job ter Haar was awarded a scholarship from the Anner Bijlsma Award Foundation for his Piatti project.

Redefining Instruments

Through a series of interrelated projects I’m exploring the ways in which we understand the cello as an ‘instrument’. The projects include editorial work on Fauré and Debussy pieces, an ongoing study of Pablo Casals’ phenomenal artistry and technical innovations, exploration of 19th-century virtuoso material, and two projects built around new compositions. I’ve just made a film of Michael Finnissy’s Chi Mei Ricercari (2013) for cello and piano (performed on seven cellos from the Academy’s collection) coupled with a lecture and interview (Inner Life of the Cello webpage) and am part-way through a cycle of pieces for solo cello by Richard Beaudoin (Harvard) based on recordings made by Debussy (Bacchante, 2015) and Thelonius Monk (You know I’m yours, 2016).

Neil Heyde (staff)

How is the cello more than just a ‘tool’ for playing music?

How might a composer react to materialistic processes of multi-instrumental practice?

My thoughts about instruments respond to a form of rational and critical knowledge based on the systematic interpretation of the causes that create the musical material, that is, musical material that exists thanks to its operational construction. I seek to address compositional problems from a positivist perspective, approaching the instrument, experimenting, and forcing the technique to happen at the same time. It is through this process that musical materials are created. Like Augustinian rapture, I would say that the Trinity that torments me is made of instruments, techniques and matter.

Rubens Askenar

Through writing for groups of the same instrument, I am looking to find ways to capitalise on both the textural depth and directness of timbre and expression that such ensembles can offer. I find these lesser used instrumental combinations have as much (if not something fresh) to offer as any established ensemble, but are often associated with novelty arrangements of classical ‘hits’. In brief, through a series of compositions and my study of other works for such forces, I am looking at the unique characteristics of such ‘consorts’ and the particular compositional approaches needed to explore them.

Robert Peate

How might a composer exploit the potential of consorts?

How can performance concerns influence compositional thought?

My research explores scordatura as a physical and theoretical phenomenon. As a bassist these insights have led to the development of Scordatura Pedals, which allow bassists to change the pitch of their strings while playing, and thus greatly expand the capabilities of the instrument. Stemming from physical scordatura, theoretical scordatura is a process I apply to existing works. This process draws equivalencies between the notes of a passage and a theoretical model, resulting in the transformation of various musical parameters.

Carter Callison

The Concert Experience

How might our perception of space be manipulated by sound?

How might programming provide a trigger for the performing imagination?

This collaborative project considers the impact of programming on a performer’s craft by exploring the preparation and performance of cycles/groups of works in one genre by single composers. This might playfully be described as a kind of ‘anti-programming’, placing the burden of fascination not on the act of combining works, but on the power of their delivery. By adopting this mindset, anti-programming becomes a creative catalyst for the imaginative remaking of musical works.

Sarah Callis (staff)

How can I incorporate the role of the listener into my compositional process?

I’m currently working on Permutations, a roaming performance artwork synthesising music and architecture, in collaboration with architectural designers and a violinist. It is a new piece of music for six recorded violin parts, composed simultaneously and in parallel with the design of six chambers which form its acoustic setting.The chambers will be made almost entirely of rotating doors. Each listener can create their own piece by the path they take through the space and the way they construct the chambers around them. It is as if the structure were itself an instrument and the listener, their own performer. Freya Waley-Cohen

How can traditional virtuoso performance practices be challenged, so that performers and audiences can hear repertoire afresh?

My research focuses on ideas of virtuosity in the nineteenth-century, and how they compare to virtuoso piano performance today. This includes an examination of the perceived role of the virtuoso, the way virtuosity is ‘programmed’ for performance platforms, and also the way instruments of virtuosity, namely nineteenth-century pianos, can offer creative avenues. My doctoral research focused on Franz Liszt, and is now extending to other pianist-composers like William Sterndale Bennett, a prominent figure in the Academy’s history.

Olivia Sham (staff)

My research is focused on exploring acoustic principles and new instrumental techniques that can conceive the idea of spatialisation within the limited space of the concert stage. My music is constantly nourished by the desire of creating a sound environment for the listener. Therefore, the creation of the illusion of space, which can reach levels greater than the limited space of the concert hall, is of crucial importance to me.

Gerardo Gozzi

What choices does a Musical Director make?

My study explores how the Musical Director working in a musical theatre setting makes choices in performance regarding tempo, the tempo curve of a rallentando and the length of a final pause, all of which need to be extremely accurately replicated on a daily basis. By studying video and audio footage it will be possible to explore the level of consistency of tempo choice and pause length in a number of different theatrical and musical settings, with the aim of highlighting the potential effect of external influences, such as piano versus orchestral accompaniment, the rehearsal room versus the theatre setting and an empty auditorium versus a packed house.

Stuart Morley

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Where are the boundaries of music-making?

My current project, a book about the 19th-century salon, looks at ways in which salon culture offers a unique performance practice rather than a musical language. This highlights the people, places and concepts involved as important factors alongside repertoire. I am also looking at ways in which cultural assumptions about gender informed salon practice.

Dr Briony Cox-Williams (staff)

Maria Curcio was one of the most sought-after piano teachers of the Twentieth Century, but what was it about her teaching that earned her this status?

Like many influential pedagogues, very little is documented concerning the content of Maria Curcio’s teaching. Credited as the teacher of such pianists as Martha Argerich, Radu Lupu, Mitsuko Uchida and Pierre-Laurent Aimard, I became intrigued to discover more about her as a pianist and teacher. Through interviewing and working with her former pupils, I hope to build an enduring picture of her approach. This process is proving highly influential in the development of my own playing and teaching.

Jack Lambert

Performance practices and traditions

Alfredo Piatti – still teaching at the Academy?

Through my research I would like to present a learning model for an aspect of nineteenth-century historically-informed performance practice (HIP) that is highly personal. This will explore the link between instrumentalists’ choices concerning the playing techniques at their disposal and the goal of conveying an interpretation to an audience. Present-day HIP doesn’t offer a clear path to develop this kind of ‘handwriting’, because this is normally done in a teacher/student relationship. I seek to establish such a relationship with Alfredo Piatti, the famous nineteenth-century cellist who taught at RAM for over 30 years, by internalizing the material I can gather about him and his playing.

Job Ter Haar

Can historical recordings offer a door—not merely a window—to the past?

My research project focuses on the interpretative aesthetic of the pianist Moriz Rosenthal, whose formative influences included Karol Mikuli, Franz Liszt and Anton Rubinstein. Through a study of his recordings and those of other pianists who studied with the same figures, this project explores Rosenthal’s art and its relation to leading nineteenth century interpretative traditions.

Otis Beasley

Collection or accumulation? How the Academy’s Special Collections were formed.

The Academy has rich yet relatively little-known Special Collections of rare books, early printed music and manuscripts. I am attempting to piece together the means by which they came into being, and producing, in the process, a transcription of the Academy’s handwritten Minute Books from its foundation in 1822 onwards; a bibliography of writings about the Academy and its collections; and exploring the nature of collecting and how the resulting materials can be maintained for use in a conservatoire setting and further afield.

Kathy Adamson (Kathy is a PhD student and also our Librarian)

What can Stokowski’s working practices tell us?

My doctoral research investigates the performance practice of Leopold Stokowski, drawing upon primary source materials in an effort to bring greater understanding to Stokowski’s motives and overall place in history, and to explore his continuing relevance to contemporary musicians. The thesis explores Stokowski’s annotated orchestral scores, recordings, personal effects, and recordings and transcripts of interviews with those who knew and worked with him in an effort to analyse his personal approach to traditional ideas and principles. The thesis also examines the far-reaching impact a background in musical composition can have on a performer’s approach to interpretation.

Margaret Dziekonski

Changing perspectives

How is it possible to reshape the image of the flute and guitar duo?

I am exploring a new perception of this formation through creating transcriptions of Viennese classical keyboard sonatas. What happens to a monologue when played by two instruments? How can a singular musical persona become plural and be experienced as dialogue? Is it possible to associate the flute and guitar with the music of Haydn, Mozart or Beethoven? Through the ‘Classical Flute and Guitar Project’ I am seeking answers to many similar questions, and would like to testify that this formation, through its newly created repertoire, will provide an articulate and sophisticated chamber music experience otherwise associated with string and keyboard instruments.

Noemi Gyori

How do we talk about performing unfamiliar repertoire?

Charles Griffes was an American composer whose tautly-constructed, vividly-hued music, has frequently been compared to famous contemporaries such as Debussy and Ravel but has rarely been discussed on its own terms. By examining what makes Griffes, and by extension performing Griffes, unique, I aim to create and document my own performance practice of Griffes’s piano music, which could possibly serve as a model for performers exploring similarly under-researched repertoire.

Abigail Sin

Can we still make old music sound new?

My work is concerned with exploring expressive techniques from both old and new practices, and asking how these can be re-imagined, re-contextualised and re-formed to authentically reflect something of our own relationship to old repertoires and to our heritage in general - since, inevitably, ‘the past is a foreign country’. I have just completed a studio cycle of 12 Schubert Piano Sonatas. Other repertoires I am exploring include the mid-20th-century piano music of South African composer Arnold Van Wyk, and a compilation of 17th-century keyboard music (both for recording).

Daniel-Ben Pienaar (staff)

Can Critical Theory help inform performance?

My project examines how Jean Barraqué’s incorporation of perpetually opposing elements in his Sonate pour piano (1952) remarkably parallels Theodor Adorno’s aesthetic prescription that tensions and contradictions are to be left unresolved in order to unmask the supposed untruth of the contemporary human condition. I aim to investigate the performative implications such an Adornian reading has for the Sonata through an analysis of the work’s discography and the development of my own interpretation as a pianist.

Thomas Caddick

The life and legacy of Kenny Wheeler; how did a self-deprecating composer, improviser and instrumentalist change Jazz in Europe?

The principal component of my PhD at the Academy is co-writing the biography of trumpeter/composer Kenny Wheeler. Through the research I have undertaken as part of this project, it emerges that Kenny held a unique position at the centre of European and British Jazz History; at once at the forefront of Free Improvisation, forging a new language in large ensemble composition, and creating an innovative harmonic vocabulary as a soloist. I am interested in compiling the first comprehensive biography of his life, and exploring how his legacy remains vital and relevant to contemporary jazz today.

Nick Smart (Nick is a PhD student and also our Head of Jazz)

Can playfulness and self-satire benefit contemporary composition ?

Playfulness and humour have important roles in my work, not least for the promise of whizzing endorphins and free abdominal workouts, but because such qualities often reveal parts of ourselves we might not otherwise care to acknowledge. Our ability to recognise and ridicule our insecurities is a rare luxury afforded to us and, in my opinion, is not credited nearly as much as it should be. Although there are few gags or gimmicks in my work, there is a playfulness that gently brings into contention those questions which deserve more critical attention.

Ryan Latimer

Collaboration and Process

How can I pair theatre with classical music to develop new interpretations?

During my Doctoral research, I invented and developed Concert Theatre to address my dissatisfaction with ‘standard’ musical interpretations and the current concert and theatre practices, and to realise my ideal performance. As a pianist, I perform side-by-side with actors on the same stage. Through a process of interweaving, music becomes not just an atmospheric underscore, but another language expressed by the musicians – a voice and character in its own right, spoken alongside the actors on the same stage. The two distinct works are presented simultaneously, to create deeper resonance and complexity of interpretation in each.

An-ting Chang

How can the concept of a musical ‘album’ inform our creative musical practice?

The focus of this project will be the recording and release of my debut album, featuring my band, Seafarers. I’m interested in expanding the parameters usually accepted when recording a jazz album, exploring how an extended recording process over a period of several studio sessions can make for a more complete artistic product. Throughout the project, I will examine factors crucial for the making of a cohesive album, considering issues of structure, aesthetics, and the importance of an internal narrative arc. There are many questions which arise when recording an album which differ from those related to live music making. I am concerned with making a clear distinction between these two environments and I will fully embrace the studio album as a unique musical medium.

Matthew Herd

My research is focused on collaborative/collective music creation and the importance of process; aural communication through the spatial aspects of music; and the importance of music personalisation. I am also developing new and unique ways of delivering compositions through structured workshops. My approach emphasizes music as a tool for individual personal experience through a combination of conscious and subconscious processes, as well as a way for community building through collective music practice.

Ruta Vitkauskaite

How can I communicate my work as a composer more directly?

What can be revealed at the meeting points of composition, improvisation, and collaboration?

My compositional work is concerned with the between-spaces in musical practice: alternative tuning systems; new instruments and techniques; virtuosity and the limits of performance technique; performer freedoms and constraint; choose-your-own-adventure music; the laundering of stolen materials. Central to these explorations is the importance of collaboration with (risk-loving) performers, and the study of the economies of musical production and process.

David Gorton (staff)

‘Cutting out the Middleman’ Anon. c.1967

If I were to embrace business talk, this phrase could serve as my artistic slogan. My research surrounds the creation and development of a web-based body of work and performance art titled RunTime. This research aims to challenge notions of control in artistic forums and explore how a contemporary band can function beyond the conventional methods and design, the emphasis being on guerrilla music making in the digital age.

Philip Dawson

What can be learned from the closest of collaborations?

The most recent questions to emerge from my study of Messiaen’s Catalogue d’oiseaux are: how do Yvonne Loriod’s two recordings of the cycle (1959 and 1970) enhance our understanding of it; and how can we view the impact Loriod and Messiaen had on the evolution of each other’s careers, particularly in the years between the two recordings? The collaboration theme resurfaces in the most recent recording I have made, of Henze’s violin and viola sonatas with Peter Sheppard Skaerved, who worked closely with the composer for a number of years and whose understanding of this music goes way beyond the confines of the score.

Roderick Chadwick (staff)

How can I reimagine the theatrical in music?

MaterialInteractions

How can concepts such as dialogue and scenario influence musical composition?

My work explores scenario-based approaches to composing music, taking player interactions and relationships as key musical elements. By keeping scenario ideas archetypal rather than specific, I am exploring how it is possible to create musical works based on conflicts, games, and ‘conversations’ between instrumental players on stage. It is hoped that this ‘theatrical,’ anthropomorphic approach to creating and shaping music can invite new kinds of listening and provoke reflections on how we tend to act in similar situations in everyday life.

Gareth Moorcraft

My last three pieces incorporate theatrical elements and build on my experience working in opera: Skin Deep, a satirical operetta set in a plastic surgery clinic in Switzerland, consists of a variety of solo, choral and orchestral numbers; Rumpelstiltskin is conceived as a sequence of dance movements based upon events in the fairy tale, with gesture and action – part dance, part dramatic movement – closely related to the rhythm and structure of the composition; Flesh and Blood, a dramatic scene for the concert hall, scored for mezzo soprano, baritone and large orchestra, sets a specially commissioned text by Howard Barker.

David Sawer (staff)

How does recording affect musicians’ performance?

My research into studio practices and the aesthetics of recording have taken several forms, from comparing live performances and studio recordings using both analytical and ethnographic methods, through to an AHRC Digital Transformations project centred on creative experiments with ‘Classical Music Hyper-Production and Practice as Research’.

Amy Blier-Carruthers (staff)

Is it meaningless to draw connections to the past?

Through a sort of ‘recycling’ my work tries to render afresh ideas from the past, in such a way as they may resonate in contemporary contexts – their clear articulation in sound being a definite research aim. In my recent orchestral work Sarcasms, connections to Prokofiev’s identically named pieces suggest music seemingly innocuous on the surface, yet perhaps with darker implications underneath. The expressive duality of this Soviet-era model served as a precedent for how a composer might deal with current societal pressures.

David Coonan

Kathy Adamson mail: k.adamson@ram.ac.ukRubens Askenar mail: r.askenar@ram.ac.uk web: www.soundcloud.com/rubens-askenarOtis Beasley mail: o.beasley@ram.ac.uk Thomas Caddick mail: t.caddick@ram.ac.uk web: www.thomascaddick.co.ukCarter Callison mail: c.callison@ram.ac.uk web: www.cartercallison.com web: www.scordaturapedals.com David Coonan mail: d.coonan@ram.ac.uk web: www.david-coonan.comAn-Ting Chang mail: antingpig@yahoo.com.tw web: www.concerttheatre.org.uk Philip Dawson mail: mail@phil-dawson.com web: www.runtime.org.ukMargaret Dziekonski web: www.margaretdziekonski.comGerrardo Gozzi mail: g.gozzi@ram.ac.uk web: www.soundcloud.com/gerardogozziNoemi Gyori mail: n.gyori@ram.ac.uk web: www.classicalfluteandguitar.com web: www.noemigyori.comMatthew Herd mail: m.herd@ram.ac.ukJack Lambert mail: jack.lambert@ram.ac.uk Ryan Latimer mail: r.latimer@ram.ac.uk web: www.ryanlatimer.com Gareth Moorcraft mail: g.moorcroft@ram.ac.uk web: www.soundcloud.com/gmoorcraftRobert Peate mail: r.peate@ram.ac.uk web: www.robertpeate.wordpress.comAbigail Sin mail: a.sin@ram.ac.uk web: www.abigailsin.comNick Smart mail: n.smart@ram.ac.uk web: www.nicksmart.co.ukJob Ter Haar mail: j.terhaar@ram.ac.uk web: www.jobterhaar.comRuta Vitkauskaite mail: ruta.vitkauskaite@gmail.com web: www.rutavitkauskaite.weebly.comFreya Waley-Cohen mail: f.waley-cohen@ram.ac.uk web: www.freyawaleycohen.com

For research staff profiles, visit the RAM website at: www.ram.ac.uk/find-people (filter ‘research programmes’)

Researcher Contacts and Profiles

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If you would like any more information about the projects in this newsletter write to us at postgrad@ram.ac.uk.

If you are interested in undertaking a PhD at the Academy, please refer to our website, www.ram.ac.uk/programmes-of-study