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Day of the Dead Mini-Fest | Final Fling

Day of the DeadDay of the Dead Mini-Fest, co-produced by Gallery of Modern Art  and Final Fling.

Date: 2nd Nov 2013
Venue:  GoMA, Glasgow

Schedule

  • 10 am – 12 noon – a shrine workshop with Greer Pester;
  • 12 noon – 1 pm – Death Rattle performance in the portico;
  • 2 pm – 4 pm – a Death Cafe – top floor workshop;
  • 5 pm – 9 pm – Unburden – one to one with Adrian Howells, southside location;
  • All day in the portico – Charnal House by Doug Strang
  • HearAfter sound installation was previewed on 25th Oct and ran until 1st Dec 2013.

Many thanks to Katie Bruce and all at the Gallery of Modern Art.

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Musica Viva Fringe

My composition Word of Mouth will be part of a collective sound installation for the Música Viva Fringe Festival 2013. The installation runs 16th November 2013 – 5th January 2014 at the CAAA Centre for Art and Architecture Affairs, Guimarães, Portugal.

“The installation offers visitors an immersion into distinct soundscapes under the theme of “text-sound composition”, originally selected by Miso Music Portugal for the 2012 Sound Walk/Garden”. More info here

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Lateral at High-Slack-Low-Slack-High

My work Lateral was commissioned for High-Slack-Low-Slack-High curated by Minty Donald for Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art in April 2012. For more information and performance times visit Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art and also the Facebook page High-Slack-Low-Slack-High.

About High-Slack-Low-Slack-High

Minty Donald introducing high-slack-low-slack-high

Commissioned Artists: John Cavanagh, Minty Donald/Nick Miller, Douglas Morland, Nichola Scrutton, Hanna Tuulikki

A group of artists with shared, but diverse, interests in sound, space and place – have created audio works to be performed in public spaces close to or on the River Clyde over five days during the Festival (Monday 23rd – Friday 27th April 2012). Each performance is timed to coincide with high tide. In these citywide performances, the natural cadences and flux of the river, once significant in the tempo of Glasgow life, will again leak into the urban fabric.

On Saturday 28th April, all five works will be performed in the Trust Hall of Clydeport Authority Headquarters, an opulent, circular, Edwardian boardroom overlooking the Clyde.  Here, the sonic interpretations of the river’s tidal cycle will permeate a building that stands as symbol of Glasgow’s maritime heritage.

High-Slack-Low-Slack-High reflects on the functional and symbolic roles played by urban rivers in contemporary cities – and in particular, the role of the River Clyde in Glasgow today. It’s common belief that, following the decline of shipbuilding and other maritime industries, Glasgow turned its back on the River. Now, while the riverbanks are undergoing significant regeneration, the water itself remains a relatively dead space. Through interweaving the natural cadences of the tide with contemporary urban rhythms, High-Slack-Low-Slack-High is an invitation to re-imagine the relationship between river and city  – beyond the legacy of Glasgow’s industrial and manufacturing past.’

Perpetually rising and falling yet constrained within manmade embankments, detached from the city that once saw it as symbolic of its industrial prowess, the tidal river is taken as an invitation to reflect on ideas of change and continuity, nature and culture, in relation to the contemporary, post-industrial city.
(press written by Minty Donald)

 

 

Performances
23 April  – Hanna Tuulikki, Bell’s Bridge, G51 – 3.15pm
24 April – John Cavanagh – Riverside Museum, G3 8RS – 3.45pm
25 April – Nichola Scrutton – Dixon Street, G1 4AL – 4.05pm
26 April – Douglas Morland – Clyde north waterfront between Victoria and Glasgow Bridges, G5 – 4.45pm
27 April – Minty Donald/Nick Millar – citywide – 5.25pm (and throughout the week)
28 April – 5pm and 7.30pm – Clydeport Authority Headquarters

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Teaching Fellow University of Glasgow

After being awarded my PhD from University of Glasgow I worked as a Teaching Fellow in Music there for two years.

Glasgow Unesco City of Music

2009-2011 University of Glasgow (Music)
Teaching Fellow (0.6 fte)

In brief, areas of work included:

Sonic Arts Levels II and III;
Practice-based Composition Workshops;
Contemporary Music Ensemble;
Lectures in Music and Technology;
Advising UG Dissertations and students on the MLitt in Popular Music Studies (Creative Practice);
First GLEAM concert organiser and host;
Music Education Project Organiser;
Course Administration.

2004-2009  University of Glasgow (Music):
Graduate Teaching Assistant

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Songs for a Stranger Quality Arts Production Award

I am very pleased to say I received a Creative Scotland Quality Arts Production Award for the development of vocal performance work Songs for a Stranger.

Songs for a Stranger is a collection or cycle of five electroacoustic works that draws metaphorical inspiration from the many senses of the word ‘stranger’. The work was originally created for, and supported by, Arches Live Festival.

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SoundAround at Perth Concert Hall

SoundAroundSoundAround was a mental health music/sound workshop and performance project co-facilitated with Erin Scrutton.

Over 10 weekly sessions we created a range of musical materials using voice, drumming, percussion and recorded sounds to create a final live interactive performance for the ‘Come Awa’ In’ opening weekend of Perth Concert Hall in Scotland.

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Songs for a Stranger Reviews

**** Joyce McMillan, The Scotsman 23/0911, Arches Live!, Glasgow

……And down at the rough end of the basement, in a bare tunnel of a room, there’s composer Nichola Scrutton’s Songs For A Stranger, a 25-minute piece that moves beyond the limits of language into five segments of abstract electronic sound, accompanied by the increasingly fierce and brilliant vocal improvisations of Scrutton and her performing partner, Celine Hanni. There’s a central moment of meditation – titled Solitude – that recalls the deep resonances of Tibetan chant; then a final, shattering visit to what sounds like a dying rainforest, as a fierce richness of animal sound gives way to crackling cataclysm, and the soft, low sigh of a final breath….

*** Mary Brennan, The Herald (“…as a live performance, full of vertiginous vocal techniques, it was always impressive…”)

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All We’re Skilled In | Plantation Productions

All We’re Skilled In was a film, sound art and heritage project run in partnership with Plantation Productions, Glasgow Film Theatre and Scottish Screen Archive. Erin Scrutton and I worked with young carers in Glasgow to create atmospheric sound tracks for silent film clips using original historical footage of the Govan shipyards and the people who worked there. The film below, made by Jamie Dempster, is a short documentary of the project itself. The film has had several screenings, including the Glasgow International Film Festival.


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HumDrum

Sister duo Nichola Scrutton and Erin Scrutton as And Then She Said in association with Plan B Collective created HumDrum pop-up singing and drumming events to celebrate 100 years of International Women’s Day. Subsequent events included the West End Festival and the Royal Highland Show.

Watch a short film about HumDrum.

Check out some press photos  of the HumDrum event at the Royal Concert Hall steps in Glasgow to celebrate 100 years of International Women’s Day at Universal News.

Big thanks to our sponsors above, and a huge thanks to all involved!

Events included: International Women’s Day 100 year celebration, Concert Hall, Glasgow, Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery for the West End Festival, and the Royal Highland Show.

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Panic Patterns by Louise Welsh and Zoë Strachan

Panic Patterns – sound design commission for theatre

I was commissioned by Glasgay! as composer/sound designer for Panic Patterns  by Zöe Strachan and Louise Welsh. The work was further supported by  a Creative Scotland New Music Award. The play was directed by Alison Peebles and ran from 19th – 30th October at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow.

Reviews

“… sound designer Nichola Scrut(t)on’s noises off for comfort…” ****The Herald

“Nichola Scrutton’s sound design plays a starring role…” Broadway World

“…an atmospheric set and soundscape…” ***The Scotsman

“…while Nichola Scrutton’s ghost-radio music……add to a twitchy atmosphere” Times Higher

@zoestrachan
@louisewelsh00
@NicholaScrutton

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Creative Scotland New Music Award

New Music Award for Panic Patterns

I am absolutely delighted to say that I have been awarded a Creative Scotland New Music Award to support my composer/sound design commission by Glasgay! for Panic Patterns theatre production at the Citizens in Glasgow. 

Panic Patterns is a new play by Zoë Strachan and Louise Welsh, directed by Alison Peebles. The show will run from 19th – 30th October 2010.

Creative Scotland

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Hold Your Breath

Hold Your Breath 5Hold Your Breath was a large-scale visual/sound art project set up to improve the entrances/exits to the Clyde Tunnel, with the participation of the Whiteinch and Linthouse communities at each end of the tunnel.

I composed the various contributions of source sound and music into one large 40-minute work, which was to be projected by radio into the cars traveling through the Clyde Tunnel.


 

 

 

 

Various groups were involved in creating sound/music source materials for the soundscape: Paragon Ensemble working with St Jerome’s and Whiteinch Primary Schools; Art Form with Bryan Tolland; Tigerstyle and Dhol Infusion drummers; and the MacAlpine Family all contributed. I worked with Paragon Ensemble in the schools, gathering up sounds/songs from the children, the playground and surrounding streets, and recorded songs at the MacAlpine’s (four generation) family party

(photos courtesy of Kathy Friend)

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GLEAM concert University of Glasgow

I am delighted to have organised the first GLEAM electroacoustic concert in the University of Glasgow Concert Hall. A call for works drew of 60 submissions. The event includes fixed medium works by:

Christian Banasik, Géraud Bec, Iain Campbell, Timothy Cooper, Jonas Foerster, Annelie Nederberg, Felipe Otondo, Dale Perkins, Calum Scott, Pei-Yu Shi, Graeme Truslove, Matt Walch.

Date and time: Saturday 20th March 2010 at 6 pm.

Free entry.

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Academic Awards

Academic Awards and Qualifications

2009 PhD in Electroacoustic Composition, University of Glasgow
Portfolio ‘Hearing Voices’ 

Funded by an Arts and Humanities Research Council Award – selected from open competition (2005 – 08)

2005 MMus in Composition, University of Glasgow

Supported by a Bellahouston Scholarship and a Broomhill Scholarship

2004 BMus (Hons) First Class, University of Glasgow

The Goudie Prize ‘Most Distinguished BMus Hons Graduate’.