Nikki Sheth

Biography

Nikki Sheth is a sound artist in the final stages of studying for a PhD in Electroacoustic Composition at The University of Birmingham following an MA in Electroacoustic Composition at The University of Manchester and a BA in Music at Oxford Brookes University. Her main focus is on site-specific multichannel soundscape composition. She is currently investigating approaches to the treatment of field recordings within soundscape composition, including compositional methodologies used within electroacoustic music and those used within installation/sound art contexts.

She has extensive field recording experience, using specialist equipment (including ambisonics) having been on various field recording residencies in the past. In 2016, she worked alongside Chris Watson and Jez riley French on a field recording workshop to Orford Ness, in 2017 she went on a field recording residency to Mmabolela, South Africa with Francisco Lopez and in 2018 she attended an Experimental Composition and Performance residency in the Pyrenees with Eli Keszler. Most recently, in 2019, she was an artist in residence at the Vanha Paukka Cultural Centre in Finland, where she spent two weeks field recording in remote locations across Finland.

Her work has been presented internationally including at KMH (Stockholm), Spektra Festival (Columbia), The Global Composition (Darmstadt), Sound + Environment (Hull), Balance Unbalance (Plymouth), Perspectives on Listening (Brisbane) and at various BEAST (Birmingham ElectroAcoustic Sound Theatre) events.

She has been commissioned for sound installations for Ten Acres of Sound Festival, Artefact Gallery, Return to Nature Festival, The Research and Cultural Collections at University of Birmingham, The Barber Institute of Fine Art and dlr Lexicon.

Nikki has had two releases on compilation albums: Sonic Mmabolela 2017 and Frameworks #609.  

Beyond composition Nikki is committed to her compositional practice and looking to constantly gain wider experience in the field, having been Assistant to the SOUNDkitchen sound walk that took place as part of Invisible Places Festival (Azores) and working as Marketing Assistant and Technical Assistant for BEAST from 2017-19. She has been teaching the Studio Composition (Reaper) module at The University of Birmingham since 2017 and in 2020 she joined Birmingham based collective SOUNDkitchen.