Calling all Composers/Artists/Graphic-Score producers! I am an improviser seeking a selection of graphic scores and improvisational prompts to record (audiovisually and purely in audio) across the course of Summer 2022 on a variety of instruments and with body.

I'm particularly interested in open notations, text-scores, works which explore subtle physicality, and the relationship between expressive movement and instrumental performance. I'm also open to collaborations or dicsussions around conceiving work together, so proposals are welcome!

A bit about me: I am a free improviser (also a composer, performer, artist, teacher) who works in a variety of sonic and theatrical contexts, and has a practice in sounding (on instruments, and with voice), and movement. Instruments which I commonly use include: Piano (incl prepared piano), tenor and alto recorders, violin, viola, voice, 3 octave diatonic harp, and a variety of homemade/found instruments.

Some examples of recent performance work can be found here:
www.henrymcpherson.org.uk/performance

And some examples of my own graphic works can be found at www.henrymcpherson.org.uk/composition

This call extends from those who are experienced in producing graphic/text/ improvisational prompts, right to those who would like to experiment in this kind of production, or are just  curious about improvisation. This includes professional composers, student composers, sound-artists, visual artists, poet-authors, those with messy unnamable practices (etc. *insert your own labels*).

Works by individuals with experience of marginalised identity are especially welcome.

Please send all scores/contributions, and a short description/introduction/text via the CuratorSpace form.

Scores in PDF or JPG format are welcome, as well as video scores (a YouTube link/Vimeo link is probably easiest), embedded HTML., word dox, or other common formats.

The deadline (for logistics purposes) is May 31st 2022.

I'm happy to have correspondence re: submissions, and will notify everyone whose works I am aiming to record by early June 2022.

I will be able to provide a copy of the video/audio file of the recording (which you are welcome to upload onto your own socials etc.), and will also be collating the recordings into a standalone digital website format later in 2022.

If you have a questions, please drop me a line.

Looking forward to connecting!

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BIO
Henry McPherson is an artist, composer, improviser, performer, and researcher from the United Kingdom. His creative practice draws widely across the visual, sonic, and kinetic, and his work has been shown internationally across diverse settings – from concert halls to galleries, from bathrooms to dance studios, from parks and warehouses to cafes, virtual halls and radio. Creating across a variety of media and disciplinary settings, Henry holds improvisation as the centre of his artistic work; as both a richly expressive performance practice, and as a generative mode of being-awareness, and a source of creativity and presence. His recent works explore aspects of free association, spontaneous collage, and transmedia interactivity across paint, instruments, body, text, notation, voice, video and sound. He is fascinated by communication across the non-verbal, by the juxtaposition of expressive forms,  and the capacity of artistic practices to transform individuals and communities. Henry is a visiting lecturer in improvisation at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and teachers undergraduate Free Improvisation at the University of Huddersfield (both since 2020)

Henry is an award holder of; Creative Scotland Four Nations International Fund (2022); the Collaborative PhD Studentship in Music and Dance in association with Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (2019 – 2022); Help Musicians Transmission Fund (2018); the Harriet Cohen Memorial Music award (2018); Psappha Ensemble Composing For Guzheng Bursary (2018); the Patron’s Prize for Composition (2017); The Opera Sparks Commission prize (2017 – Scottish Opera); the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Composition Club Prize (2017); the Dinah Wolfe Memorial Prize for Composition (2013); and is a two-time nominee for the Scottish Awards for New Music (2017 – Ūhte – cat: best recorded new work; 2019, with Savage Parade – Anthems for Queer Youth, 2018, Robert Reid Allen – cat: Collaboration in New Music).

He has recently been artist-in-residence at Manasamitra (2021, UK), NGallery (2021, GR, with the Noisebringers) The Fruitmarket Gallery (2019, UK) with Despina Gallery (2018, BR), the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (2018, CA), FLUID Festival (2017, UK, with Savage Parade).