An established performer of new music, I have developed my approach to the flute as a means to research, explore and collaborate on new forms of music, with an ever-widening scope to incorporate other art forms into my practice.
I have played alongside musicians such as Rohan de Saram, Roberto Fabbriciani, Barry Guy, new music groups ELISION, Musikfabrik, Klangforum Wien, CAPUT Ensemble, Kammarensemblen, and as a soloist with the Irish RTÉ Orchestra. I am often a guest musician with the UK’s new music groups (Uproar, Ensemble Octandre, Explore ensemble, Apartment House, and Shui Mo). Since 2021 I have been a member of the Riot Ensemble, and I play with the Scottish-based IPSA COLLECTIVE.
Exploring solo performance continues to be an important journey for me. It has led me to develop a distinctive approach to the flute; to re-invigorate older music, as well as exploring improvised and notated contemporary works. A recent musical development has been studying honkyoku – traditional Japanese music for shakuhachi – and I am following the Kokusai Shakuhachi Kenshūkan lineage. Alongside music, my other artistic outputs range from visual art, video and I also use photography in my work. This all could best be described as a hybridised practice where performance, composition, visual art, video art and drawing meet. My most recent works include a video, sound composition and drawings as part of the Shiro Oni residency in Japan.
Alongside my performance career I also lead and teach on the performance courses at the University of Edinburgh and have held various Visiting Fellowships (University of Aberdeen 2010 – 2012 and Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Huddersfield from 2014 -2019). Since 2022 I am a Lecturer and Director of Performance in the Reid School of Music at the University of Edinburgh. Outside of academia I have been invited to teach on courses such as the Estalagem da Ponta do sol residency in Madeira, and the Distat Terra Academy in Argentina.
“To go directly to the matter in hand: the playing on this disc is sensational..”
Johan Svensson
Nutida Musik
My solo discs INWARD (2011) and VALE (2017) were released on the Métier label, and they document my work with composers Esaias Järnegard, Richard Barrett, John Croft, Malin Bång, Brice Pauset, Evan Johnson and Fabrice Fitch. Other CD releases of note include the composer John Croft’s monograph disc Seirenes in 2019 (released by First Hand Records), and two discs with Another Timbre, performing the works of Jürg Frey and Magnus Granberg.
I have recorded several albums and live broadcasts for the BBC, WDR Cologne, YLE Finland, Radio France, Radio Nacional de España, Swedish Radio, ARTE, Métier, Another Timbre, FHR, Icelandic RUV, as well as curated releases of repertoire, and my own compositions. Recent releases include a live recording with Stephanie Lamprea and Alistair MacDonald of improvised music, and an album of the Telemann Fantasias and my improvisations hailed as “bold, beautiful and clever” by Gramophone magazine. Forthcoming releases include a single and album on the IPSA COLLECTIVE The Night With – Germinal solo, duo and trio works for flute, voice and percussion, First Hand Records – Prehistory for voice (Stephanie Lamprea) and flutes by Stuart MacRae 2027.
I studied flute at the RSAMD (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) with Sheena Gordon and later with Richard Blake. After graduating with honours, I continued my studies at the Conservatoire de Strasbourg, France, with Mario Caroli with support from a Dewar Award and the Scottish International Educational Trust. I received my PhD from Middlesex University in 2020.
As well as performing on the full range of western flutes from contra to piccolo, I also play a Rudall Carte flute from the mid-20th century, restored for me by Arthur Haswell.