Michael Spencer
Born in Bellshill, Lanarkshire, Michael Spencer studied composition with Graham Hair at the University of Glasgow where he received an MA in Music and Scottish Literature.
His music has been performed at the Henze Festival (RNCM), St Cyprian's Church (London), the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (twice short-listed for the Young Composers Competition in 2000 and 2003), Instal 2002 (Glasgow), Maxis 2003 Festival (Leeds), in workshops by the Apollo Sax Quartet, Psappha, at the Darmstadter Internationale Ferienkurse fur Neue Musik, 2004, and extensively at Glasgow, Manchester and Leeds Universities. Toxic Knuckle Bones was performed by the BBC Philharmonic under James MacMillan on Radio 3's Hear and Now programme in 2001. In 2003, he received a stipend to attend the International Summer Course for Composers at Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, where he worked with Chaya Czernowin, Steve Takasugi and Richard Barrett. His work la mer all avec le soleil was performed there by Ensemble SurPlus and subsequently in Stuttgart and Freiburg.
In 1999, he co-founded Polaroid, an evening of new and experimental music at the Arches (Glasgow) with Tiernan Kelly and Freya Mitchell. Programmes included the Scottish premieres of Cage's Muyoce II, Nono's Canti Per Tredici, and performances of Stockhausen and young British composers. Polaroid was the blueprint for the Arches Instal Festival, for which Spencer was a consultant in 2001 and 2002, organising the performance of Ligeti's Symphonique, works by Berio and Takemitsu and the Scottish premiere of Feldman's Instruments III. He has also conducted the University of Glasgow's Kelvin Ensemble in a programme of Arkell, Yeats and Schumann. In 1999, he co-ordinated the performances of the music of Urugyan composer Graciela Paraskevaidas at Manchester University (as part of a tour of Universities organised by Stephen Davismoon). His research interests include the music of Brian Ferneyhough, James Dillon, Helmut Lachenmann, improvisation, live electronic-performer interaction, aesthetics and semiotic analysis which he taught at Manchester University for seven years. In 2003, he gave a lecture-recital a the University of Glasgow, a master-class in composition at the Junior Department of Trinity College of Music (London) and he was resident composition tutor for the National Youth Brass Band.
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At the University of Leeds he runs and conducts the new music ensemble LSTwo which has recently performed Stockhausen's Kreuzspiel, Varese's Int grales and Ionisation, Lachenmann's 'zwei Gef hle', Musik mit Leonardo, Grisey's Vortex Temporum and Boulez's Le marteau sans maitre, Chaya Czernowin's Afatsim and James MacMillan as others see us, Beat Furrer's Gaspra and a range of premieres of postgraduate student work. He has published several articles on the creative process as well as on James Dillon's music.
Spencer's recent work includes Ungrund II (after Bahme) for solo clarinet/kick-drum (one player) which was premiered in Strasbourg before receiving its UK premiere in Leeds, April 2010. It recently received another performance at MusicA Festival, Strasbourg. Ungrund I (after Bahme) for chamber ensemble was premiered by Ensemble Modelo62 as part of their UK Urbane Tour. The Eemis Stane - Homage to K.S. Sorabji is available on a CD collection of new piano music recorded by Aleks Szram (fonorum label 2005). Current work in progress includes a large scale project entitled Intervolve which explores the possibilities of the double bass within the framework of the thinking of Michel Foucault. The triptych is for accordion and double bass; improvising solo double bass; three improvisers and three non improvisers; and a work for bass flute, harp and double bass. He is also writing a new work for ELISION ensemble (oboe, percussion and violin), a work for solo piano for Ian Pace, a solo cello piece for Laura Seddon and an article on the string quartets of James Dillon.
