John Kefala-Kerr

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Senior Lecturer in Music

I'm a composer, sound artist, and writer. My work has been presented at festivals and venues in the UK, Europe, Japan, and the USA. I'm a past recipient of the Arts Council Dio Award, Ralph Vaughan Williams Trust Contemporary Music Prize, Volos International Composition Prize, RTS Music Award Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival Composer’s Prize, Arts Council Encore Award, and Journal Culture Award.

My output includes instrumental, orchestral, vocal, digital, multimedia and text-based works. These are often conceived in close proximity to everyday places, situations, and circumstances. My cycle of four multimedia operas (Beyond Belief) was commissioned in the wake of the Cumbrian foot and mouth crisis, and my multimedia opera (Steamsong) was created and performed during the run-up to the Scottish Independence Referendum. I've created new work in collaboration with dance and theatre practitioners, migrants and refugees, schoolchildren, marine scientists, and high-security prisoners.

Teaching and supervision
Research
Publications
Areas of expertise

Teaching and supervision

I am Programme Leader for BA (Hons) Music (Top-Up). I have examined and co-supervised PhD submissions in music composition and sound art.

Research

My research develops 'extended' approaches to musical composition and my writing explores the outer limits of musicology, especially the use of fiction as a critical mode.

Publications

Number of items: 31.

Article

Kefala-Kerr, John (2017) Blood Choir: Making Music from Glucose Readings. Sounding Board, 16 (3/1). pp. 14-16. ISSN 1464-6730

Kefala-Kerr, John (2011) Reading Music: Further Adventures in Creative Musicology. Muzikas Akademijas Raksti, VIII. pp. 130-139. ISSN 2243-5719

Kefala-Kerr, John (2010) WKD2. Friction Magazine and Journal. 01-600.

Conference or Workshop Item

Kefala-Kerr, John (2015) Flawed Notes for Unsound Ears. In: BEAST FEaST, 28-30 Apr 2016, Birmingham University. (Unpublished)

Kefala-Kerr, John (2014) "Chords Blur like Polaroids in Reverse": Reading Thimio's House — a novelistic symphony in seventy chapters (and four movements). In: International Words and Music Conference, 11 - 12 Apr 2014, Maribor, Slovenia. (Unpublished)

Kefala-Kerr, John (2010) Reading Music: Further Adventures in Creative Musicology. In: 42nd Baltic Musicology Conference, 28-29 Oct 2010, Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Music Academy, Riga, Latvia.

Kefala-Kerr, John (2005) Writing Music: Adventures in creative musicology. In: Great Writing International Conference, July 2005, University of Portsmouth.