Prof James Saunders

Personal Statement

Personal Statement

Head of Centre for Musical Research

> james-saunders.com for more information

James Saunders is a composer who makes modular compositions and series. His music has been played at numerous international festivals, including Bludenz Tage fur Zeitgenossiche Musik, Brighton Festival, BMIC Cutting Edge, Darmstadt, Donaueschingen, Gothenburg Arts Sounds, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Inventionen Berlin, The Kitchen, Music We’d Like to Hear, Ostrava New Music Days, Rational Rec, Roaring Hooves, Ultima, and Wittener Tage fur Neue Kammermusik. It has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and Resonance FM (UK), WDR3, BR Klassik and SWR2 (Germany), and national radio in Czech Republic, Norway, Italy, New Zealand, and Sweden. In 2003 and 2007 he held residencies at the Experimental Studio fur Akustiche Kunst in Freiburg. James has worked with Apartment House, asamisimasa, Sebastian Berweck, ensemble chronophonie, duo Contour, Rhodri Davies, Nicolas Hodges, London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Modern, Neue Vocalsolisten, plus minus ensemble, Psappha, ensemble recherche, SUONO MOBILE, SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg, and 175 East. As a performer he plays in the duo Parkinson Saunders with composer Tim Parkinson, Apartment House, and has also performed with Alvin Lucier, Christian Wolff and Phill Niblock.

James studied at the University of Huddersfield and latterly with Anthony Gilbert at the Royal Northern College of Music. He is Head of Centre for Musical Research at Bath Spa University, where he runs the experimental music ensemble Material. James was a participant in the London Sinfonietta’s Blue Touch Paper scheme (2006-9). He held an AHRC Research Leave Award in 2005-6, and an AHRC Fellowship in 2010-11. His edited book The Ashgate Research Companion to Experimental Music was published in 2009, and Word Events: Perspectives on Verbal Notation (with John Lely) will be published by Continuum in 2011. In 2010-11 projects include new pieces for Basel Sinfonietta, Simon Limbrick, [rout], and Neue Vocalisten Stuttgart, and a volume of Contemporary Music Review on the Wandelweiser composers. His piece distribution study will be performed on 12 Sundays in 2011 at the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich.For more detailed composition, performance and research information, please visit james-saunders.com

Professional Qualifications:

FHEA

Membership of Professional Bodies/Subject Associations:

AHRC Peer Review College
Higher Education Academy
Performing Rights Society

Teaching Areas:

Composition
Experimental Music
Music since 1945 (Musicology)
Notation

External Examining:

University of Birmingham [MPhil/PhD, 2006- ]
University of Huddersfield [MPhil/PhD, 2005- ]
Goldsmiths College [PhD, 2007- ]
Brunel University [BMus, 2008-]