Composer and Sound Artist
I am delighted that my research on graphic notation has been awarded the Bernadotte Program scholarship which supports “young” researchers’ projects. Though I may not pass as a young researcher, my thesis defence is fairly recent, 2023.
My project involves digging deeper into the ontology and practice of graphic notation, also in relation to the visual arts. The other musical recepient is musicologist Satyanita Emma Sohlgren.
My new article, Relating electronic musical instruments to composition and notation, is now published:
I am looking forward to reading the other articles in this special issue on notation!
I am almost finished with the work for saxophone quartet and organ for Nordic Saxophone Quartet, commissioned to work together with Johannes Thorell’s great transcription of a Haydn keyboard concerto.
I am proof reading a journal article for Organised Sound on notation for live-electronics ensembles. Next paper will be a kind of survey article on graphic notation.
Teaching is fun as always, especially with the CoPeCo master (Contemporary Performance and Composition) students being at KMH for this spring semester before continuing the program in Lyon and Hamburg. Anyone who’s in Stockholm can hear them perform Fri 20th March at a lunch concert at KMH.
This time of the academic year is also associated with lots of admin concerning admissions to our college. Also, we are evaluating our two composition bachelor programs which is a very rewarding process.
I have finished work on an ambitious work for piano and fixed media electronics concerned with recorded strings. I am currently working on music for saxophone quartet and organ for Nordic Saxophone Quartet with my friend, turned KMH colleague, Johannes Thorell.
Besides being Director of studies, being responsible for the quality and development of our eight composition programs means there’s much work to do at KMH.
Also interesting discussions in the committee for promoting Musical Diversity and Copyrights at STIM.
Yesterday I was elected to be a deputy member on STIM’s committe for promoting musical diversity and copyrights. It is an important part of our national rights organisation’s work to ensure that music makers from different backgrounds and different genres can take part and contribute to Swedish cultural life.
I was honoured to be on the committe for composer Fernando Garnero’s PhD defence together with Hedvig Jalhed and Pierre Alexandre Tremblay. Andrea Valle was opponent, and Garnero’s main supervisor was Kent Olofsson.
Link to his thesis: https://lucris.lub.lu.se/ws/portalfiles/portal/217145530/Garnero_Thesis.pdf
Time flies and we are soon halfway through the spring semester at KMH. As Programme Director for composition I have been busy lately with the development of a new syllabus for our composition master programme together with two colleagues.
As a researcher I am now focusing on prescriptive notation, particularly notation for live-electronics and graphic notation. Much has been written about these topics but I feel we have only scratched the surface so far.
I am also making sure to find the time for composition too!
Following my thesis defence in June last year, I became Director of Studies for composition, Programme Director for electroacoustic music composition, and since August for all composition programmes at KMH. I have also been occupied with the development of our master program CoPeCo which will open for admissions in December in the four schools, EAMT in Tallinn, KMH in Stockholm, CNSMD in Lyon and HfMT in Hamburg.
I also have time for research as part of my position at KMH and I use this time to expand my experimental notation research to also involve action notation, starting with a study on the notation for live-electronics ensembles in collaboration with my friend and colleague Mattias Petersson.
On a different note I was delighted to hear that my choir piece We Know Not Where the Dragons Fly is part of the repertoire for the the semi finals of the 2024 edition of the prestigious Eric Ericson Award for choral conductors.
Photo: Cat Hope
On June 7th I defended my PhD thesis, Sound Notation: The visual representation of sound for composition and analysis (available here) at KMH in Stockholm. Opponent was Professor Craig Vear from University of Nottingham (appearing on Zoom because of an injury) and in my thesis committee were Professors Cat Hope from Monash Univsersity, Palle Dahlstedt from Chalmers Tekniska Högskola, Jason Noble from Université de Moncton, and Erkki Huovinen from KMH.
My supervisor has been Roberto Bresin from KTH and co-supervisors were Henrik Frisk, KMH, and Kjetil Falkenberg, KTH. Eva-Lotta Sallnäs Pysander from KTH chaired the defence which took place in Nathan Milstein Hall at KMH.
The defence started with a performance by great percussionist Joakim Anterot who performed a new work for percussion and electronics, made using Sound Notation where an electroacoustic work had been partly transcribed for live performance. The professor Vear and the committee provided an interesting and varied conversation about my new notation, its possibilities and limitations.
Now I am back at work with a new position as Director of Studies for composition at KMH besides teaching and more research, also composing choir music when I find the time.
Yesterday was my 80 % PhD seminar at KTH Royal Institute of Technology with Professor Cat Hope as discussant. She has a unique perspective on my research being the General Chair of the TENOR conference, where technologies for new notation have been presented and discussed the last 7 years. She discussed my ideas both from a composer’s and a researcher’s perspective.
Before that, I was in Tallinn having rewarding talks with my colleagues in the CoPeCo master program. It is a collaboration between the music colleges in Stockholm, Tallinn, Lyon and Hamburg. The next generation of CoPeCo students (working with music performance, composition, improvisation and new technologies) arrive in Stockholm soon for one semester.