Call for PhD Music Creators: New Sounds with flautist Carla Rees

Royal Holloway University of London Department of Music is delighted to announce a call for postgraduate music creators. We invite postgraduate taught and research composers who are currently enrolled at Royal Holloway to collaborate with acclaimed flautist and Honorary Research Associate Carla Rees for performance in June 2023.

Up to six selected composers will be given the opportunity to have a new or existing work for solo flute and electronics (optional) performed at a PLAY! Festival 2023 event, hosted by Royal Holloway University of London and curated by the College’s Performance Manager, Nathan James Dearden. The selected work will be performed by acclaimed flautist and Honorary Research Associate, Carla Rees. The selected composers will have the opportunity to rehearse and workshop the new or existing piece in the lead up to the performance through collaboration with the performer.

The application process

If interested in this opportunity, please complete the online application form below and submit the following material:

• Two scores of your music (in PDF format; exemplifying your best or most recent work)
• A brief programme note for each submitted score
• A composer biography
• The composer may wish to submit a recording (Computer simulations are naturally allowed; converted to .mp3 preferable). However, a recording is not compulsory.

Applications should be received via online application by 12:00pm on Friday, 31 March 2023. Large files may be sent via an online file transfer service such as WeTransfer, and emailed to nathanjames.dearden@rhul.ac.uk.

The successful application will be selected by Dr Carla Rees (performer & Honorary Research Associate at Royal Holloway), Dr Nina Whiteman (Director of Music Composition), and Nathan James Dearden (Lecturer in Music Composition). The successful applicants will be notified, and further details of the project will be provided on Monday, 3 April 2023.

Important information 

• To apply you must currently be enrolled as a postgraduate taught or research student in music (i.e. MMus, MPhil, PhD) at Royal Holloway, University of London.
• The final work for one flute must be between 5 and 7 minutes in duration. 
• You may submit a work which has already received a performance and/or recording, however priority will be given to applications which have not received prior exposure. 
• Submitted works may include electronics, provided that the music creator are able to engineer the workshop process and performance. We are unable to cater for ive electronics triggered by the performer for this project.
• The selected composer has the opportunity of presenting a work with the following potential combination of flutes: Bass flute (Kingma system), Alto flute (Kingma system), C flute (Kingma system), Piccolo, and/or Traverso.
• Unfortunately, there is no monetary value attached to the project.