Following a recent call for Scotland-based composers, five composers have been selected to develop new works for solo flute and electronics working alongside Ruth Morley (flute) from Red Note Ensemble and composer Alistair MacDonald. The new works will be performed during soundfestival 2020.
Rūta Vitkauskaitė
Rūta Vitkauskaitė’s musical interests are widely varied – while working in the field of classical composition, she has also dedicated much of her time for research in collaborative music creation and music personalisation. Ruta has recently received PhD in Composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she focused on audience engagement and collective music creation.
Her collaborative electro-acoustic opera for blind-folded audience, Confessions, created by Spatial Opera Company has won Golden Stage Cross in Lithuania, and since then has toured across Lithuania, Sweden and EU with 47 shows to date. Her Walking Opera (opera co-created with local communities and presented as sound-walk around local areas), has been premiered in Aarhus Capital of Culture 2017, and re-created in Notting Hill, London.
Ruta has written more than 80 instrumental scores. Her ensemble and orchestral compositions have been five times awarded as Best Composition of the Year by Lithuanian Composer's Union, while her music has been performed in festivals across EU, including Gaudeamus, Operadagen (NL), Apeldoorn, Sound (UK), Nordbeg, BZZZ, Halland (SE), Gaida, NOA (LT), Q-O2 Winter fest (BE), SUSA (DK) and elsewhere, and has been broadcast on Lithuanian National TV, LRT Classic, BBC Radio 3, Deutschlandradio Kultur (a special one hour long portrait) and many independent radio stations.
Ruta has also been an active initiator of experimental music projects, from collaborative groups to large scale festivals: she was director of Druskomanija festival and workshop series the Process in Lithuania for several years, facilitator of New Music Incubator in Nordic and Baltic countries and across EU, facilitator and tutor at ComposersPlus summer academy in Lithuania, and currently – initiator of CoMA, Contemporary Music for All, Glasgow branch. This year, Ruta has been awarded Royal Philharmonic Society Composer's Prize.
Rylan Gleave
Rylan Gleave is a composer and vocalist from the north of England, currently based in Glasgow, Scotland.
His compositions have recently included pieces for d/Deaf actors in morality-tale style narratives (The Strange Musician, 2019), chamber works about navigating neurodiversity (Permanent Address, 2020), defiantly Queer sound art (Distinguished Guests, 2017), duets for out-of-tune piano and snoring (Stolen hours, 2019), and relaxed concert music for children with Additional Support Needs (Six Weather Pictures, 2019).
Recent successes have included being selected from three worldwide Call for Scores, issued by Nevis Ensemble (you are embodied air, afloat 2020), Rolf Hind (The void above, 2020), and Red Note Ensemble, (Unpitched skin, 2020) the Nevis Call for Scores culminating in a new commission for their Year of Coasts and Waters Tour, 2020 (winding through seaweed, 2020, which will receive a BBC Radio premiere). He was also awarded 2nd Prize in the Septet category of The Diversity Initiative Call for Scores (In a sea of screaming I hear your voice, 2020), and an Honourable Mention in the Trio Category (Sediment, 2020).
Rylan performs as lead vocalist with theatrical black metal band Ashenspire, and as a live and recording artist for contemporary vocal works. He also sings as a baritone with Wellington Church Choir, in the West End of Glasgow.
Rylan is currently studying a Master of Music degree at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, supported by an RCS Trust scholarship, and The Glasgow Educational and Marshall Trust, after graduating from his Bachelor of Music Degree with First Class Honours.
Georgina MacDonell Finlayson
Georgina MacDonell Finlayson is a musician, composer and community arts practitioner from the North East of Scotland. She enjoys a varied portfolio of composing, performing and teaching in both classical and traditional styles, and has a particular interest in multi-disciplinary composition and performance.
As a composer, she has had works performed by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Red Note Ensemble, Any Enemy, broadcast on BBC Radio 3's New Music Show and performed at soundfestival.
In 2019 she curated and performed the music for Miss Lindsay’s Secret, a theatre show premiered at the Scottish International Storytelling Festival.
Her work often explores everything from traditional and contemporary classical styles, to sound design, theatres, spoken word and electroacoustic composition.
Fiona Harrison
Fiona Harrison is a Scottish composer, and graduate of Edinburgh University with Masters in Digital Composition and Performance. She is particularly interested in acousmatic experimental music and classical art music and in bringing this to audiences in new and interesting ways.
She was nominated for the Scottish New Music Awards 2018 for her recent composition Barkeval in the electroacoustic/sound art category.
She is also a non executive Director of the Scots Music Group in Edinburgh, a wonderful organisation that promotes traditional music in the community and changes lives.
Amit Anand Vamanacharya
Amit Anand (b.1989) is an award-winning composer whose compositions have included music for TV Serials, Children’s rhymes, Background Score for documentaries, short films and feature films. Amit Anand also worked as a music producer for Independent artists such as Rinosh George (This is Bengaluru, 2014) and Gubbi the rapper (Amma, 2016).
Over the past 10 years, Amit has been actively involved in progressing the music scenes of both South India and Scotland as a composer, arranger, producer, educator, record and mix engineer. His music is inspired by the scales and ornamentations of Indian classical music set against a backdrop of jazzy harmonies.
In 2015, Amit Anand started his education as a composer under the tutelage of Rory Boyle and Dr Colin Broom and he is now a graduate from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland with an honours degree in composition. Amit Anand has also received training in Electroacoustic music from Prof. Alistair MacDonald.
During his studies, he has written several Chamber music and Electroacoustic works most of which were premiered in the Plug festivals (2016-2018), Glasgow. Notable works include Jugalbandi for Tabla and Electronics, An evening with Albert for an 8 piece ensemble, Elastic written for Red Note Ensemble, and Thali, a solo piano piece. He also composed songs and background score for a commercially and critically acclaimed Indian film titled Gultoo. STV featured Amit Anand on their popular evening show where he spoke about the experience of producing the music for the movie in collaboration with Scottish musicians and engineers.
In 2020, Amit Anand launched an online music school Pianoshaale which aims to establish a piano pedagogy in the regional languages of India starting with his native language Kannada.
This development opportunity is part of our soundcreators programme which focuses on nurturing creative talent.
soundcreators is funded by Creative Scotland, Help Musicians UK and the PRS for Music Foundation as well as by the Foyle Foundation, the Hugh Fraser Foundation and Aberdeen City Council.
It is organised in partnership with Red Note, Scotland’s Contemporary Music Ensemble.
