Music Composition (Composition and Improvisation/Composition and Performance/Composition and Creative Audio)

Music at Ulster is a vibrant community of practitioner-researchers, with interests in key areas of contemporary practice including composition, music technology, participatory/applied music, and improvisation and performance and soundtrack research. We are one of the leading centres for composition on the island of Ireland, with five composers on staff, including two professors, performance specialists (both music and drama), and colleagues in film and screen and heritage/museum studies. We have supervised 20 PhDs to successful completion since 2009, and staff have presented work at leading venues across the UK, Ireland, Europe and the US, and our Inclusive Creativity project (Impact Case Study) was placed joint first in the 2021 UK Research Excellence Framework (Music, Drama, Performing Arts, Film and Screen).

We welcome projects which bring innovative modes to composition, including socially-engaged/applied practices, the development of new ensemble forces (including combining acoustic and electronic forces or mixed-media approaches), the composer-performer, improvisation and open forms in composition, site-specific and installation practices, and scoring for film and screen. We also have extensive experience in cross-arts interdisciplinary practices and welcome proposals engaging with these types of practices.

NB: As this is an area involving practice-based/practice-led research, applicants are judged on the basis of exemplar materials and experience (examined through their application materials and, if shortlisted, interview), as well as a research proposal which relates to an applicant’s area of experience. Please note that applicants are requested to provide links to documentation of their previous creative output via links in their project proposals or CVs.

Music at Ulster is based in Derry/Londonderry at our Magee campus, and benefits from a range of professional relationships and partnerships across Northern Ireland, the wider UK, and the island of Ireland as a whole, as well as a rich multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary context working alongside drama, performing arts, film and screen and heritage/museum studies. Recent partnerships include the Walled City Music Festival, City of Derry International Choir Festival, City of Derry Jazz festival, as well as our long-running departmental lunchtime concert series (which has featured Grammy nominees), Derry Sound Factory (experimental and improvised music) and Oscillations and Modulations (a festival of electronic music tools and techniques), as well as performances and commissions for Brooklyn Academy of Music, New Music Dublin, Ireland’s National Concert Hall, Opera Dagen (Rotterdam), and BBC Radio 3. Awards include the Ivor Novello Award (nomination), British Composer Award (winners), and serving as Music Laureate for Belfast.