Music Research Seminar: Nathan James Dearden (Royal Holloway University of London)

Composer Michael Gordon once remarked, “Abstract music gets its power by giving listeners the opportunity to project their own sensibility onto the metaphysical framework that the composer has built.” In recent years, I have found this phenomenology to be sewn into my own music: I create spaces in which the listener can engage with a range of contexts, abstract storytelling, and extramusical inspirations. Musicians and composers have used their respective mediums to reflect society back at itself for centuries, allowing us to re-evaluate and assess our actions and motivations in a purely abstract and often transcendental form. At its core, my utilization of extramusical stimuli, as a composer, serves as an avenue for forging a connection with the listener.

In this paper, I will explore two works which aim to address matters such as utilising the socio-political as an extramusical force in music, and how one might reflect shared and lived experiences as a means of commenting on the world around us in two national anthems: it’s not working (2017) and Morals + Interludes (2020).

About Nathan James Dearden 

Described as “a champion of his generation” and whose music is “hauntingly beautiful” (Media Wales), Dr Nathan James Dearden is an award-winning Welsh composer of concert music and mixed media, conductor, and educator.

Nathan's music has been commissioned, performed, featured and workshopped by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Berkeley Ensemble, Welsh National Opera, mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston, The Tippett Quartet, Genesis Sixteen, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, National Youth Orchestra of Wales, The Heath Quartet, Grand Band, the Fidelio Trio, Hebrides Ensemble, CHROMA ensemble, and flautist Carla Rees. His music regularly features in concerts across the UK and overseas, including at the Cheltenham Music Festival, Dartington International Summer School and Festival, International Young Composers' Meeting, CROSSROADS International New Music Festival and Vale of Glamorgan Festival of Music. Nathan began his professional composing life as an inaugural Young Composer-in-Residence with the National Youth Orchestra of Wales and Music Creator for Sinfonia Newydd in 2013. Since then his music has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru, Resonance FM, RTÉ lyric FM, S4C and Soho Radio, whilst also released on NMC Recordings and Delphian.

Recent notable performances and projects include: That now are distant, commissioned by Nicky Spence and Andrew Matthews-Owen; anthem, commissioned by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra; love songs for the broken with saxophonist Robert Burton and Britten Sinfonia; a Welsh tour of Everything about us in collaboration with poet Rufus Mufasa, commissioned by the National Youth Choir of Wales; and First Service as part of a live BBC Radio 3 Choral Evensong broadcast (Choir of Royal Holloway).

Nathan has recently won ‘Best Music Creator’ in the 2022 Making Music UK Awards for a legacy commission with National Youth Training Choirs of Great Britain - i breathe, and was selected to represent Wales at the 2023 International Society for Contemporary music World Music Days in South Africa. In recent years, he has also been awarded an Early Career Public Engagement Grant from the Institute of Musical Research in support of Spotlight Series: Finnissy at 70, was selected as a London Philharmonic Orchestra Leverhulme Arts Scholar for their 2016/2017 season, in May 2017 he received the inaugural Paul Mealor Award for Outstanding Young Composers, and in summer 2021 he received the inaugural Acapela Composer Award for an outstanding Welsh Composer by the Welsh Music Guild.

Based in London, Nathan is currently Lecturer in Music Composition and Music Performance Manager at Royal Holloway, University of London. Nathan is Lead Composition Tutor at Centre for Young Musicians (Guildhall), Chair of Wales Council for Ivors Academy, a Member of the Incorporated Society of Musicians (MISM), a Trustee of Classical Remix, Board Member of the Welsh Music Guild, Featured Composer and Mentor with Cerddwn, Associate Artistic Director at MusicFest Aberystwyth, Festival Manager of Chamber Music on Valentia, an Academy Member of the British Academy of Songwriters Composers and Authors (Ivors) and an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA).

An introduction to his music