Matthew Sergeant | Composer

Last year I was extremely lucky to interview sound-artist (and fellow Bristolian) Kathy Hinde for the journal Stage Screen Sound. Kathy makes extraordinarily beautiful work that ranges over installations, participatory events, happenings, and live performances. You can read the interview online here (starting p.164).

Really excited to have my first book published with Boydell & Brewer. A long time in the making, it’s a co-edited collection around issues of Music and Time, put together with my friend and collaborator, music psychologist Dr Michelle Phillips (RNCM). Full details on the Boydell and Brewer website here.

Myself and James Saunders have had an article published in the new music journal MusikTexte. The article is entitled What do composers do all day? and contains additional contributions from Joanna Bailie, Freeman Edwards, Larry Goves, Bryn Harrison, Hanna Hartman, Evan Johnson, Michael Maierhof, Cassandra Miller, Caitlin Rowley, Elena Rykova, Charlie Sdraulig, Laura Steenberge, Ming Tsao, and Amnon Wolman.

I’m delighted to announce that my work has been featured on a new release - ENCLOSURE, from ensemble The House of Bedlam.

I’m delighted to announce the publication of a new edition of Contemporary Music Review on Musical Materialisms, guest edited by myself, Prof. Isabella van Elferen (Kingston University), and Dr Sam Wilson (Guildhall School of Music and Drama).

As you may be aware from a previous post, recently revised an orchestral piece for a recording project with the London Symphony Orchestra. The piece - but today we collect ads - is over ten years old. I was twenty-three when I wrote it and less than a year out of studies. had to revise the piece as if I was a 23-year-old again, but with the wider practical experience that 10 years of professional work brings. It was certainly not my intention to aesthetically upgrade the work in any sense. To work out what I was trying to do originally and then try and do that better.

In a time of international emergency, this feels like small news - but I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was absolutely thrilled and excited to have been included on a new release from the London Symphony Orchestra.

Still a bit stunned, I am delighted to be able to announced that my recent piece Meeting the Universe Halfway (2018) has been nominated for an Ivors Academy Award, formerly the British Composer Awards. The final results will be announced at the awards ceremony in London on December 4th.

It has been a rather busy summer so far, even on top of the usual frantic entanglement of marking and assessment that a university position demands. This is a little update as to my various research activities over the last two or three months, with some previews of upcoming projects.

It's already the middle of a busy period for me, writing-wise - and it's not even the end of January! Two interesting projects are included amongst the melange, a new piece for Canadian percussionist Noam Bierstone and a major new piece for The House of Bedlam.

Last Friday [05.01.18], a few folks might have seen that I posted/twittered/facebooked-out something called MATTERS OF MATTER. A strategic move on my part, given I'd failed to previously introduce what the project was, or more precisely, is. Oops...

It was my absolute pleasure to accept a commission from the trio back in the Autumn to help them celebrate their tenth anniversary. I've followed the group for many years and (full disclosure) I'm lucky enough to count the three of them amongst my friends. I thought I'd pen a few words about the piece and its conception and development, so here goes...

Following a successful interview last week, I am aghast to have been appointed as the new Senior Lecturer in Composition* at the University of Bath Spa, joining Prof. James Saunders and his uncannily creative department. My first day is April 18th 2017.

As part of their 30th anniversary celebrations, Australia's ever-impressive ELISION Ensemble - in collaboration with the RMIT Gallery - have made this beautiful video of my piece [Terrains], performed by its dedicatee, trumpet virtuoso Tristram Williams - of whom I am in awe.

Renowned Australian trumpet-virtuoso Tristram Williams premiered my new piece for solo quartertone flugelhorn (with preparations) in Melbourne a couple of weeks ago - and I've uploaded an excerpt from this first performance to soundcloud. Fasten your seatbelts - Tristram is really nailing this extremely tricky piece. I thought the time might therefore be right to pen a few words about the piece and what led me to its composition.

Ahead of this Sunday's performance at the Yard Theatre in London, ATTN Magazine spoke to myself and Emma Lloyd about my performance/installation [kiss] and its performance history. You can read the full interview online here.

Ahead of next Sunday's performance of [kiss] at the Yard Theatre in London, curator of the ddmmyyseries - and composer - Jack Sheen got in touch to chat about the piece and my recent work in general. Jack has painstakingly transcribed our Skype chat for you to read here, so a huge shout out to him for all his work on this.