The Picture Gallery Composer-in-Residence Scheme is a ground-breaking residency in which successful student composers from the Department of Music will have their musical responses to the Picture Gallery and some of its wonderful paintings performed by an invited ensemble each year.
This residency is a professional development programme for music creators of the Department of Music to receive specialist, industry-standard workshop sessions and tutorials, working collaboratively with invited artists, ensembles and tutors to create new works that are premiered as part of the International Concert Series.
These new compositions are the result of a special collaboration between the College’s Arts Collection Teams and Dr Nathan James Dearden, Lecturer in Music Composition at the Department of Music.
Project overview for 2024
Now in its eighth year, our six sound artists/composers/music creators, from across a range of genres, are creating music through a collaborative and immersive professional development programme exploring the relationship between live, recorded sound, DAW-produced music, and Royal Holloway's art collection.
This year, the selected music creators are tasked to create a short work for choir and electronics inspired by our Picture Gallery and its collection. These new works will be workshopped and performed by the Choir of Royal Holloway and their Director Rupert Gough.
Each successful applicant also receives support and guidance from Lecturer in Music Composition, Nathan James Dearden, through a mixture of one-to-one mentoring sessions and catered professional development sessions. Each selected music creator will also receive mentoring sessions from composer, sound designer, and Research Scholar, Thomas Baynes.
