A weekend of events covering ambisonics, electroacoustic, AV and field recordings. Featuring performances from internationally renowned composers, workshops and more.
The twice yearly Sound Junction is a fully immersive experience with the audience surrounded by bespoke-built 360 degree dome of speakers and the lights are switched off. A weekend of events covering ambisonics, electroacoustic, AV and field recordings.
Doors: 7:00pm
Friday 8th May, 7.30pm
On a Wing and a Prayer – Reflections on a Deeside’s Changing Habitat
Composed by Pete and Joe Stollery and Katherine Wren
Performed by Katherine Wren (viola) and Pete Stollery (electronics)
Plus Pieces from the British Electroacoustic Network:
Irving Kinnersley – Estuary 2 (13:44)
Enrico Dorigatti – Morphogenesis (7:07)
Marty Fisk – Metrograde (9:23)
The British Electroacoustic Network (BEAN) is the national body for electroacoustic music in Britain.
Saturday 9th May, 7.30pm
Denis Smalley performs a selection of his pieces
Louise Rossiter performs a selection of her pieces
Plus pieces from USSS projects and students
Artist Bios
Katherine Wren is a viola player and an increasingly in demand composer/improvisor, originally from South Yorkshire. She studied music from 1988 at the University of Manchester and the Royal Northern College of Music before making Scotland her home in 1995. She is currently a member of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra where, alongside orchestral playing, she has a passion for contemporary music and audience engagement. In 2016 she formed Nordic Viola, a flexible ensemble performing and promoting music from the countries encircling the North Atlantic. Katherine received a Special Commendation in the 2020 RPS/ABO Salomon Prize for her contribution to all aspects of orchestral life and her work with Nordic Viola.
Pete Stollery studied composition at the University of Birmingham and was one of the first members of BEAST (Birmingham Electroacoustic Sound Theatre) in the early 1980s. From 2000, he was part of the team which re-introduced music programmes at the University of Aberdeen, including the introduction of doctoral programmes in Composition and the development of the electroacoustic music studios. He retired as Professor of Composition and Electroacoustic Music in 2022. His main creative interest is in how humans respond to sounds in their immediate surroundings, in particular sounds that are not necessarily intended for listening purposes. His creative work exists as electroacoustic compositions, sound installations, web-based sound art, as well as instrumental/vocal compositions. Pete’s music is published by the Canadian label empreintes DIGITALes.
Joe Stollery is a pianist, saxophonist, and composer originally from central Aberdeenshire. He graduated from the University of Aberdeen with BMus (Hons), 2015, MMus in Composition, 2016 and PhD in Composition, 2024. His musical interests cover a wide range, and as such his compositional aesthetic stands somewhere between common-practice and the avant-garde. He was twice a finalist in the Carlaw-Ogston Composition Award (2015 & 2016), and has been commissioned by the Aberdeenshire Youth Orchestra, the Geneva-based wind band Harmonie Nautique, Orchestra of St John’s, Aberdeenshire Saxophone Orchestra, Cappella Nova, Any Enemy and Hebrides Ensemble, amongst others.
Louise Rossiter is an award winning Electroacoustic composer and sound artist based in Leicester, UK. Her research interests include expectation in acousmatic music, silence and music, acoustic ecology, multi-channel composition and spatialisation. Her current research carries on from doctoral research to explore ways in which interactions of sound, silence, and timbral blending might evoke implications, expectations and questions. Her works have been performed internationally at CIME (Kraków) EMS, Electronic Music Week (Shanghai), Influx (Musiques et Reserches), L’espace du sons, NYCEMF, BEAST, Toronto Electroacoustic Symposium, Bologna Conservatory of Music, Electric Spring Festival, and Electroacoustic Wales.
Denis Smalley was born in New Zealand and studied music at the University of Canterbury and the Victoria University of Wellington prior to spending a year at the Paris Conservatoire in Olivier Messiaen’s composition class, completing a diploma in electroacoustic composition. He moved to England, completing a doctorate in composition at the University of York. He worked as a Senior Lecturer in Music and Director of the Electroacoustic Music Studio, University of East Anglia, and a Professor and Head of the Department of Music, University of London. Retiring in 2009, and is now Professor Emeritus. In 2008 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters by the University of Huddersfield for achievements in electroacoustic music.
