Dr. Nicholas Brown
Ussher Assistant Professor, Music
Biography
Nicholas Brown (GB) is an artist-composer, performer and writer. He creates musical works using a variety of time-based media, which are often presented through hybrid forms of performance/installation. His creative work has been presented at international festivals and venues such as the BBC Proms; Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival; Science Gallery, Dublin; Turner Contemporary, Margate; Cambridge Festival of Ideas (UK); Sonorities, Belfast; Haarlem Koorbiennale (NL); and the Three Choirs Festival (UK). As a performer he has conducted his music at venues including Lincoln Center, New York, The National Gallery, Washington D.C. & London's Barbican Centre and performed as a pianist at venues including Wigmore Hall and Kings Place in London. As a writer, he has published articles on issues in the philosophy of music in contemporary practice, especially the use of digital technologies in computer-mediated composition.
Nicholas Brown was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford University and Manhattan School of Music, New York, where he studied composition with American composer, Ned Rorem. He has previously held lectureships in music at St Catherine's College, Oxford University; Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance, London; the University of East Anglia, Norwich and served as Senior Lecturer in Music and Director of Performance Studies and at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge. Nicholas currently holds the post of Ussher Assistant Professor of Sonic Arts at Trinity College, Dublin and is an Associate Researcher at the Orpheus Institute, Ghent.
Publications and Further Research Outputs
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Nicholas Brown, 'Chit-chat', Stockholm, Scenkonstmuseet, 16 Feb - 18 Aug, 2019, -
Electroacoustic Composition and Silent Film in, editor(s)Barton, R. and Trezise, S. , Music and Sound in Silent Film: From the Nickelodeon to the Artist, London, Routledge, 2018, [Nicholas Brown]
Nicholas Brown, What can network theory tell us about polyphony?, The Power of Networks, Ghent, Belgium, February 21-22, 2018, 2018
Nicholas Brown, 'Chit-chat', Science Gallery Summer Show, 2018, 'SOUND CHECK'. , Dublin, Science Gallery, Dublin, 2017, -
Nicholas Brown, Composition Pedagogy in an Age of Electronic Media, Composition as Critical Technical Practice, Orpheus Institute, Ghent, Belgium, 22 November 2016, 2016
Nicholas Brown, From the Temporality of Pulse to the Generation of Sounds, The Making of Musical Time, Orpheus Institute, Ghent, 25-26 February 2015, 2015
Composing as a Way of Doing Philosophy in, editor(s)Darla Crispin & Bob Gilmore , Artistic Research in Music: A Sourcebook, Leuven, Leuven University Press, 2014, pp225 - 230, [Nicholas G Brown]
Nicholas Brown, The Composer's Art in an Age of Digital Mediation, Composition in the 21st Century, Trinity College Dublin, 5-7 March 2014, 2014
Nicholas Brown, Composing the Performer: On the relationship between the work of making a work of music and the idiosyncrasies of a performer's practice, Artistic Experimentation in Music, Orpheus Institute, Ghent, 27-8 April 2011, 2011
Nicholas Brown, Being Among the Living: On the Inter-relationships Between Performers, Witnesses & Environment in 'As I Have Now Memoyre', Organised Sound, 16, (2), 2011, p176 - 183
Nicholas Brown, 'Lady Windermere's Fan', The Fan, London, British Film Institute, 2009, -
Nicholas Brown, The Flux Between Sounding and Sound: Towards a Relational Understanding of Music as Embodied Action., Contemporary Music Review, 25, (1-2), 2006, p36 - 45
Nicholas Brown, 'After Death', Mad Love, London, British Film Institute, 2002, -
Non-Peer-Reviewed Publications
Nicholas Brown, 'The Undulatory Theory of Light', Turner Contemporary, Margate, Oscillate Festival of Experimental Music and Sound 2018, 2018, -
Nicholas Brown, 'Vanishing Points', First performance: Ghent, Belgium (3/09/17); First UK performance: Belfast, UK (21/04/18), Composer, 2017, -
Nicholas Brown, 'On the Production of True Consonance', Helmore Building, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, 2016, -
Nicholas Brown, The Impact of Digital Technology on the Standard Model of Musical Performance, Research Exchange Lunchtime Session, Long Room Hub, Trinity College Dublin, 6 December, 2016, Long Room Hub
Nicholas Brown, 'Starfish', 2016, -
Nicholas Brown, Presentation-demonstration of physical computing and sensor technology in the context of my compositional practice, Dorkbot #2, Makespace, Cambridge, UK, 21 April, 2015, Dorkbot
Nicholas Brown, 'On the Generation of Sounds', Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK, Cambridge Festival of Ideas, UK, 2015, -
Nicholas Brown, 'Point | Line | Plane', Mumford Theatre, Cambridge, UK, Anglia Ruskin University Lunchtime Concert Series, 2015, -
Nicholas Brown, Presentation for sixth-form students on my professional practice as a composer working in film, Study day for sixth-form students, Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge, 5 February, 2015, Cambridgeshire Film Consortium
Nicholas Brown, Presentation on my creative work based on Robert Grosseteste's De Generatione Sonorum & De Operationibus Solis, Ordered Universe Symposium, Norman Chapel, Durham University, 26 November, 2015, The Ordered Universe Project
Nicholas Brown, 'From Birdsong to Light', St Peter Hungate, Norwich, UK, Hungate Medieval Art, 2013, -
Nicholas Brown, Practising Every Day: Musical Acts in our Daily Lives, Lunchtime Talk given as part of the exhibition, 'The Artist's Studio', Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich, UK, 20 May, 2010, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts
Nicholas Brown, Guest speaker on the subject of collaborations between composers and performers, London Symphony Orchestra 'Discovery' series, LSO St Luke's, London, April, 2008, LSO / SPNM
Research Expertise
Recognition
Representations
Advisor, Science Gallery Dublin exhibition, 'Sound Check'
Awards and Honours
Apgar Scholarship, Magdalen College, Oxford University
Foundation for Sports and the Arts Scholarship
Performing Rights Society Foundation, Composer Bursary Award
PRS/NFMS, UK 'Adopt a Composer' scheme
Instrumental Scholarship, Magdalen College, Oxford University
Memberships
Associate Researcher, Orpheus Institute, Ghent, Belgium. Member, research cluster, 'Music, Thought & Technology'.
Fellow, Higher Education Academy, UK.
Writer-member, Performing Rights Society, UK
Writer-member, Mechanical Copyright Protection Society, UK