We invite music creators and creative writers who are currently Final-Year Undergraduate and Postgraduate Taught students at Royal Holloway to submit an application for this special, collaborative opportunity.

What is it?

This is a ground-breaking residency in which successful student composers from the Department of Music will have their musical responses to the Picture Gallery and some of its wonderful paintings premiered as part of Royal Holloway's International Concert Series 2023-24. 

These new compositions are the result of a special collaboration between the College’s Arts Collection Team and Nathan James Dearden, Lecturer in Music Composition at the Department of Music.

Our 2023-24 Project

Now in its seventh year, we are setting the task for six sound artists/composers/music creators from across a range of genres to create music and sound installations through a collaborative and immersive professional development programme exploring the relationship between live, recorded sound, DAW-produced music, and Royal Holloway's art collection. 

This year, the selected music creators will be tasked to create a sound-installation (variable duration) inspired by and for short-term installation in our Picture Gallery, which will be presented . Music creators will be tasked to create a new music landscape through their own DAW, and have the opportunity to work with musicians from both New Music Collective and New Voices Consort if they choose to involve either a live element to the new work or pre-recorded elements. 

Each successful applicant also receives support and guidance from Lecturer in Music Composition, Nathan James Dearden, through a mixture of one-to-one mentoring sessions and catered professional development sessions. Each selected music creator will also receive two mentoring sessions from composer, sound designer, and Research Scholar, Thomas Baynes.

Each music creator will have the opportunity to meet with the College Art Curator and Arts Collection team to discuss the Picture Gallery's art collection and to explore possible areas for artistic collaboration.

This opportunity is open to final-year Undergraduate and Postgraduate Taught students at Royal Holloway, University of London.

Project Timeline

Monday, 4 September 2023 Applications open
Monday, 2 October 2023 Applications close
Monday, 9 October 2023 Applicants notified of outcome and full information sent to successful applicants 
Monday, 16 October 2023 Research and development begins
Monday, 8 January 2024 Draft deadline for music creators
W/C Monday, 22 January 2024 Final deadline for music creators
W/C Monday, 29 January 2024 Premiere performance week