ResearchWorks: Shades of Night

Image: 'In Venice' (1895) by William Degouve

This is a talk about our relationship to darkness, the transfiguration of once familiar environments, and the things we might encounter. I will discuss my recent composition Shades of Night for Melbourne-based ensemble Rubiks Collective, a work characterised by stillness, darkness and solitude with live visuals by the artist Allison Chhorn. The talk will explore the elusive nature of unstable sounds, contingency, and flexible forms.

Speaker

Sylvia Lim is a composer based in the UK. Her works are intimate, exploring a small amount of material in depth. She is interested in the materiality of sound, notions of close listening, perception, rawness and instability. Recent commissions include music for Mira Benjamin (Music We’d Like to Hear), EXAUDI, The Hermes Experiment and Prague Quiet Music Collective. Sylvia completed her PhD (‘Exploring organic decay through sound’) at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. She teaches composition at The Purcell School, the Royal Academy of Music’s Junior Academy, and at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.

Guildhall School’s ResearchWorks is a programme of events centred around the School’s research activity, bringing together staff, students and guests of international standing. We run regular events throughout the term intended to share the innovative research findings of the School and its guests with students, staff and the public.