2021 has certainly brought its challenges, but I’m definitely happy with what I’ve been able to accomplish this year – with the much-needed support of friends, family, and colleagues!
Performances
I had an amazing time attending impuls Academy and Festival in Graz in August (after its delay from February). I had a reading session with Ensemble Schallfeld of in praise of shadows, as well as premieres of at the still point by Quartetto Maurice and near dark by Trio Abstrakt. Really privileged to work with these three amazing ensembles – quarantining for five days upon arrival in Austria was just a small price to pay (and I ended up getting A LOT of work done…). This trip really was special to me – getting to hear my music being performed and working with musicians in person after quite a long break was pretty moving. Also, Graz was awesome – made loads of friends and memories here, would love to return!
The excellent Ruth Morley recorded Nocturne for alto flute (originally written for Psappha Ensemble’s Composing for Flute Scheme in 2017) as part of her Lost and Found project. In some great company here and really enjoyed hearing the new pieces premiered at Sound Festival in October!
In October, my piece the surface of the night received its UK premiere by Stephanie Lamprea and James Banner at Sound Festival in Aberdeen during a concert of works based by Scottish composers. Great to be a part of Stephanie and James’s in-person duo premiere – definitely check out their 2022 projects!
After writing a piece for oboe and cello for Red Note at Sound Festival 2019, I had the opportunity to get to work with Sergio Vega Dominguez again. We developed a new work for oboe, which he premiered at the Hunterian Museum as part of The Dear Green Bothy and Being Human Festival.
Research
I was pleased to get some writing published – I wrote a Diary Essay about my practice research, which was published in The Kelvingrove Review.
I presented my research at the RMA/BFE Research Students’ Conference in January as well as the Music and Intercultural Practice Symposium at the University of Hull (virtually) in May.
Teaching & Education Work
I was thrilled and honestly pretty shocked to receive the ‘Best Graduate Teaching Assistant’ Award at the 11th annual Student Teaching Awards at the University of Glasgow. Now in my fifth year of teaching (!), it honestly meant so much to be recognised by my students for my contribution to their studies. I definitely tried my best to support students during last year’s move to online teaching, and I can honestly count a number of former students as good friends and collaborators now.
I continued my work as a GTA for Music, delivering seminars for Orchestration, as well as the new course Practical Instrumentation, Musicianship, and Scoring (with Drew’s handy acronym, PriSM). I also contributed to the design and delivery for a Music Summer School for incoming undergraduates.
I was thankfully able to move the listening group I set up last year to in-person, which makes a world of difference. I’ve been really encouraged by the response from students to exposing them to more experimental approaches to sound and music, focussing on presenting the work of composers of colour and gender minorities.
I’ve had a lot of fun being involved with Sound Festival’s Engaged Composer programme. It’s been great hearing from some excellent educators, as well as getting to know the other participants over Zoom, and finally meeting in person in November in Stirling.
We may also have had a late night (booze-fueled) improv session of quiet, sustained, fragile sounds, which of course was right up my street…
I had a great time delivering a couple of free workshops over Zoom for young people on using Sibelius notation software for Sound.
University of Glasgow
I continued in my role as Committee Chair for Sound Thought – we made a move online at the start of the year and created a series of soundscape compositions to form The Dear Green Bothy soundwalk. Check out a review of Sound Thought’s activities in 2021 here.
I had the opportunity to work as interim Music Development Officer for a month which was a great experience. Really looking forward to the programme of concerts and events Cathy Brady Phillips has lined up for next year!
I started a new role as Project Assistant for The Dear Green Bothy, a programme of creative and critical events, workshops, and projects curated by the College of Arts in response to COP26. It’s been a wild ride, but it’s been really fulfilling seeing our pretty packed programme come to life (relatively smoothly)! I’ve honestly really enjoyed seeing so many different arts responses to the climate crisis and it’s been great working and collaborating with various colleagues and organisations.
I completed the Postgraduate Leadership Programme for PhD students and went on to design and deliver an introduction to leadership course with my colleague, Klaudia Jasionowska. We’ll be delivering this again next year for PGR Development!
I was re-elected as the Postgraduate Convenor for the College of Arts for Glasgow Uni’s Student Representatives’ Council. This role has thrown up a fair few challenges which I’ve tried to meet head on. This has included raising awareness of the ongoing issues highlighted by Al Jazeera’s Investigation Unit’s podcast ‘Degrees of Abuse’, continued efforts to call for the decolonisation of higher education (check out my post ‘Decolonising the Curriculum: A GTA’s Perspective’ on the SGSAH blog), as well as working within the SRC to support UCU’s industrial action. I was really proud to have contributed to this last effort in particular, as the SRC has backed the UCU. I was joined by fellow PhD students and GTAs, members of staff, and fellow SRC reps on the picket line at the start of December, which was really heartening (those who didn’t please join the UCU and join us next time…)
I was really proud to have taken part in Movember again this year, raising £300 for mens’ mental health awareness and suicide prevention. I challenged myself to run everyday in November – despite it being one of my busiest months, I was pleased I was able to accomplish this and run 175km. It was great to achieve some personal goals, like working on my half marathon time, completing a 30km, and running a total of 1200km in 2021. Continuing to develop my love of running this year has been particularly helpful for my mental (and physical) health – could not recommend getting into this more!
Many thanks to all of my friends and collaborators for making 2021 a great year despite the circumstances! Here’s to 2022!
Great content! Keep up the good work!