Nicholas Brown

Biography

Nicholas Brown (GB, 1974) is an artist-composer, performer and writer whose creative practice spans electroacoustic music, sound installation and digital film. His work has been widely presented at international festivals such as Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival; BBC Proms (London); Three Choirs Festival (UK); Sonorities (Belfast) and at venues including Lincoln Center (New York); Ishibashi Memorial Hall (Tokyo); the Barbican Centre (London); Concertgebouw Brugge (Belgium); Scenkonstmuseet (Stockholm); and Turner Contemporary (Margate). He has also written two scores for silent films, which have been recorded and released on DVD by the British Film Institute (e.g. Mad Love, BFIVD515).

Nicholas is frequently active as a performer and electroacoustic improviser. He has conducted his compositions at international venues such as Lincoln Center (New York); The National Gallery (Washington D.C.); London’s Barbican Centre; and given piano performances at venues including Wigmore Hall and Kings Place, London. As a writer and researcher, he has published journal articles and book chapters on contemporary music practice in volumes such as Organised Sound (CUP) and Contemporary Music Review (Taylor & Francis). Recent pieces include a book chapter on the role of computer technology in augmenting compositional practice (‘The Composer’s Domain: Method and Material’ and another chapter on vocal performance in Structural Cohesion in relation to pragmatist philosophy (‘Game-show; or The Playful Work of the Voice’, both published in 2021 by Leuven University Press, Belgium.

Nicholas was educated at Oxford University (BA, 1996; DPhil, 2006) and studied composition at Manhattan School of Music, New York (MM, 1998). He has taught at Oxford University; Trinity Laban Conservatoire, London; the University of East Anglia, Norwich and Trinity College Dublin. He is currently an Associate Researcher at the Orpheus Institute, Ghent, Belgium.