Sarah Westwood
Sarah Westwood
I use memory and intuition as a source for my music, and am drawn toward mixed media/interdisciplinary projects, for dance, video, theatre, installation or concert works. I make both acoustic and electronic music, sometimes incorporating found objects and sounds. In my current research practice, I use the memory of composing for dance as a compositional process. This feedback results in a memory of a memory for new compositions ...
Sarah Westwood
composer//sound artist//musician
I use memory and intuition as a source for my music, and am drawn toward mixed media/interdisciplinary projects, for dance, video, theatre, installation or concert works. I make both acoustic and electronic music, sometimes incorporating found objects and sounds. In my current research practice, I use the memory of composing for dance as a compositional process. This feedback results in a memory of a memory for new compositions ...
Sarah Westwood
composer//sound artist//musician
short bio
I compose music for dance, music-theatre, installation, and concerts. My music is concerned with: memory and the failure of memory; embodiment and transcendence; somatics (perceiving the body and enviroment from within) and matters of the heart. Working in both acoustic and electronic music, with traditional notation, open scores, and improvisation.
extended bio
Notable attainments include being awarded the Bliss Trust Scholarship for artistic development to USA (at University of California San Diego); selected for a Creative Retreat at The Red House Aldeburgh (supported by Britten-Pears Foundation); selected composer for ISCM World Music Days New Zealand; winner of the 21st Left Coast Chamber Ensemble Competition San Fransisco; featured as 'Composer of the Day' on DONNE Women in Music; selected as a composer for Phoenix Dance Theatre’s inaugural Choreographers and Composers Lab Leeds, and a musician in Ircam Academy's In Vivio Danse Paris.
My work has been received in eleven European countries, across four continents, commissioned, and awarded; with performances of my work by The Interstring Project (DE), Après l’Histoire (USA), Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble, Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, Ensemble L'imaginaire (FR), Prism Piano Trio Boston (USA); soloists Dan Thorpe (AUS), Aleksandra Demowska-Madejska (PL), Jelena Makarova (LT/UK), Karin Hellqvist (SWE), Keiko Murakami (FR); and music students at Bangor University, Oxford University and Royal College of Music, amongst others; in venues and festivals including Bitesize Proms (UK), Echofluxx (Prague), Queen Elizabeth Hall (London), CROSSROADS Festival (Mozarteum, Salzburg), Snape Maltings (UK), Le Petite Cabinet (Strasbourg), Being Human Festival (Horniman Mueseum and Gardens London), St John's Smith Square (London), Constellations (Chicago), OUA Festival (Osaka Japan), Electric Lodge (Los Angeles), Cheltenham Music Festival (UK), Siobhan Davies Dance Studio (London), and Dance Limerick (Ireland).
Recordings have been broadcast on Resonance FM, BBC Radio 3, the Daffodil Perspective and Women's Radio Station London, with scores published on BabelScores and Tetractys Publishing.
education
I have received mentorship from Patricia Alessandrini, Lauren Redhead, and Holly Rogers (Goldsmiths); Andrew Lewis and Xenia Pestova (MA, Bangor); Raymond Banning (Trinity Laban), Kenneth Hesketh; additional mentorship includes from Mira Benjamin, Chaya Czernowin, Toshio Hosokawa, Justė Janulytė, Zygmunt Krauze, Anton Lukoszevieze, Katharina Rosenberger, and Scott Wilson; masterclasses with Mira Calix, Nic Collins, Beat Furrer, Philippe Leroux, Gilbert Nouno, and Rebecca Saunders; and workshops with Christopher Fox, Helmut Lachenmann, Robin Minard and Miller Puckette.
additional work
Alongside composing, I have worked as Director of Programmes for Estalagem da Ponta do Sol's Contemporary Music and Electronics Residency (Madeira), Co-Director for Illuminate Women's Music UK, and Associate Lecturer in Composition at the University of Surrey.
Photos:
Summer in Norfolk by Sarah Westwood
Portrait of Sarah by James Harvey
The Interstring Project plays speaking within | fragmented lines at Crossroads Festival, Salzburg
Photo: Fabian Schober. 8 Nov 2019
Hong Kong New Music Ensemble play The Hands We Used To Make Were Clay at EchoFluxx Fetival, Prague. 6 April 2016