Professor Leigh Landy

Electroacoustic music, experimental music, contemporary performance, new media arts.

• Music, Technology and Innovation Research – Institute for Sonic Creativity
• Institute of Creative Technologies

Click here for a full listing of Leigh Landy's publications and outputs.

Electroacoustic Musical Production and Musical Studies: in particular – Electroacoustic musicology, music dramaturgy, access to/facilitating the making of electroacoustic music, electroacoustic music in a cross-arts context, composition and devising practices.

Major projects, beyond compositions: Analysis project and EARS 2 pedagogical project with the development of its Compose with Sounds software (+ associated publications including my recent book “Making Music with Sounds”).

Contemporary time-based performance and new media arts.

BSc, MA, PhD

Currently mainly MA (Res) and PhD supervision + MA Music, Technology and Innovation

• Board of Phoenix Arts 2001-2007; 
• Board member Composers Desktop Project 1990-2021; 
• Int’l Computer Music Association Board: 1999-2007.

Principal keynote and single composer concert at Bowed Electrons – UCT 22, South African Music College, University of Cape Town (September)

Invited Composer at Visiones Sonoras, CMMAS, Morélia, Mexico (September)

Featured composer, Musicacoustica 2023, Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing (October)

Two books in review: ‘On the Music of Sounds and the Music of Things (with John Richards) and ‘Experiencing Organised Sounds: Investigating the listening experience across diverse sound-based works’

Recent Keynotes:  

• EMAS conference, Greenwich, 2019
• Sonic Arts conference, Univ. de Tres Febrero, Buenos Aires, 2017
• Legality/Illegality, DMU, 2017
• Narratives and Alternative Stories conference, University of Chester, 2017
• WOCMAT 2016, Taiwan
• CFP, 51 – International Musicological Colloquium, Brno, Czech Republic (2016)
• ISSTA Festival and Conference on Sound, Art and Technology, Derry (2016)
• Im Hörraum der Schaubühne (In the listening space of the theatre), Berlin, 2013 – keynote and subject of the conference
• EuroMAC Leuven, 2014
• From tape to typedef Sheffield (2013)
• Technology and Aesthetics Conference, Oslo
• FIMPaC, Leeds
• EMS11, New York
• SPEEC Conference Oxford University
• “Next Generation” ZKM Karlsruhe
• “Outside the Box” conference keynote talk at City University
• “Close to the Edge Conference” U. of Chester
• An Foras Feasa Conference, Maynooth
• SMI 2010 conference, Derry

Invited Papers:

• Japanese Society for Sonic Arts, Tokyo 2018
• HAMU, Prague, 2016
• Alternative Histories of Electroacoustic Music, 2016
• Sorbonne, 2015
• Martini Elettronico, Bologna, 2015
• Sibelius Academy, Helsinki, 2014
• Southwest Electronic Music Festival, Phoenix, 2014
• JIEM Conference/Festival Madrid 2013
• Technische Universität, Berlin, 2013
• Re* Kongreß, Berlin 
• Pierre Schaeffer mediArt, Rijeka, Croatia 
• art::archive::architecture Symposium, ZKM, Karlsruhe
• Global/Local Symposium, Sta. Cecilia, Rome
• Analysis Series, GRM/Sorbonne, Paris

Invited Featured Composer:

• ISSTA, Derry
• Musica Viva, Lisbon
• Musicacoustica, Beijing

Master Classes:

• Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing
• Shenyang Conservatory of Music and Dance
• Sichuan Conservatory of Music
• Tianjin Conservatory of Music

Visiting Professor:

• Visiting Professor, Ulster University 2021 – present
• Visiting Professor, Bournemouth University 2019 – present
• Invited composer, Summer Festival, Ionian University, Corfu, 2016
• Invited composer, Summer Festival, Ionian University, Corfu, 2016
• Visiting Professor, Tianjin Conservatory of Music, 2015
• Invited talk at China Conservatory of Music, Beijing 2015
• University of Oregon and Arizona State University, 2014
• Xinghai Conservatoire, Guangzhou, 2015
• UNESP (São Paulo)
• USP (São Paulo)
• University of Auckland (New Zealand)

PhD 1st supervision: 

• Eva Kára
• Zhang Ruibo (Mungo)

PhD 2nd supervision: 

• Sol Anderson
• Stefano Catena
• Katie-Jane Howard
• Samantha Topley
• Stewart Worthy
• Marij van Gorkom

EU Culture grant (€3.8 million total) “Interfaces” hosted by the Onassis
Cultural Centre, Athens in which DMU is one of eight other partners.

Large AHRC grant with Prof. Simon Emmerson (PI) – ‘New Multimedia Tools for Electoacoustic Music Analysis’ commencing 10/10 – 9/13.

British Council/Sound and Music: Travel grant to Beijing 11/2011.

Small UKRI grant to hold an ‘idEARSathon’ bringing people from diverse fields together to investigate various forms of participatory science to be employed when the ElectroAcoustic Resource Site (EARS) is fully automated (2022).

Small grant to support the making of illustrations for my latest book (spring 2010, from departmental research funds), RIT grant 2008 to support the Content Management System prototype creation for the EARS 2 project.

Editor:  Organised Sound (Cambridge U Press) since 1995, Journal of Music, Technology and Education (Intellect) since 2006, Avant-Garde (Rodopi) since ca. 1988, EPOS (Osnabrück) since ca. 1996.

Impact can be discovered in Landy’s scholarly work and his artistic work. Selected examples now follow.

There are two ElectroAcoustic Resource Sites, the original one and one in development. The ElectroAcoustic Resource Site (ears.dmu.ac.uk), supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and Unesco is available for users in a number of languages and consists of a subject glossary with a structured index, thesaurus and a bibliography with nearly 4,000 citations. The site is visited by over 20,000 visitors monthly and is cited by people within and without academia on a regular basis, not to mention that contributions come from people of all sorts. EARS also has its own publishing arm. Currently there are plans to automate the site using tools from data analytics and information retrieval that would also expand the site’s horizon (media to be added) and languages.

Its follow-up project, still in development, called EARS 2 (ears2.dmu.ac.uk) is a pedagogical initiative for students at early secondary school level (and interested people of all ages) that will contain a variety of web 2.0 tools. The site’s creative software program, Compose with Sounds (cws.dmu.ac.uk), has been supported by an EU Culture grant and, like EARS, will be available in a number of languages for adoption in schools globally and is recommended by the Cypriot government for their National Curriculum as well as cultural and education organisations on several continents. This project is supported by Landy’s recent book, “Making Music with Sounds” (Routledge, NY, 2012).  

Landy’s works have appeared on national broadcast media on several continents, in theatres and concert venues throughout Europe and beyond. He was the first composer in residence for the Dutch National Theatre company. Some of his productions have been televised as well as his collaborative video works. He has been featured composer at festivals in, for example, China, Portugal and Brazil.  

• Invited talk within the Corwen Series, UCSB, Santa Barbara (online), 2021
• Organised and presented in EMS21 (Electroacoustic Music Studies Network), DMU 2021
• Extended talk at Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, 2021
• Czech broadcast of latest work, ‘E Pluribus Plures’, 2021
• Performance at Acousmata Festival, Corfu 2019
• One-composer concert and series of talks at CMMAS, Morélia, Mexico 2019
• Two-day workshop on sonic sampling, HAMU/Charles University, Prague 2018
• One-composer concert, Brno sonic arts series, 2018
• One-composer concert at SARC, Belfast 2018
• Presentation for National Education Institute and Cyprus Government, Nicosia, prior to their recommending the use of Compose with Sounds software in their National Curriculum, 2018
• Full day workshop on samping and sampling culture, Philharmonie, Luxembourg
• Organised and presented in ‘Bringing New Music to New Audiences’ conference 2018 as part of Interfaces, EU Culture project, DMU
• Tour of workshops and concerts in Czech Republic, 2018
• Curated MTI² broadcasts on Concertzender, Amsterdam, 2018
• Première of ‘On the Éire’ at Cultúrlann, Derry, 2017
• Commission for the 5^th in the Radio Series by Czech Radio, 2017 (subsequently broadcast and placed on a celebration DVD)
• Several performances of ‘To BBC or Not’ at the reopening of the KMH, Stockholm, 2016
• One-composer concert, Tianjin Conservatoire, 2016
• Xinghai Conservatoire, Guangzhou, 2015.
• Martini Elettronica Festival, Bologna, 2015.
• New Music and Culture Festival, Albany, NY, 2015.
• Concert tour US 2014 with four performances in three states including featured composer at Future Music Oregon concert, Eugene.
• One-composer concert at Musiikkatilo, Helsinki, 2014.
• Two separate Berlin performances, Nov 2013.
• First performance of commissioned work for Musicacoustica Festival, “China / Music   Old / New” and first performance of collaborative sample-based radio piece, “China Radio Sound”, 2013.
• ZKM, Karlsruhe closing concert for Compose with Sounds Festival 2013.
• JIEM Festival, Madrid 2013 Reina Sofia Hall + broadcast.
• Main concert at UNESP, São Paulo to open its new concert hall – 5/09 solo concert of several works + subsequent tour of two of these works at several Brazilian venues.
• “Oh là la radio” on France Musique (three times), in Merida, Mexico, Fylkingen, Stockholm, DMU & others.
• “To BBC or Not” at UNLa (Argentina), ZKM (7/09, 11/11), NZEMS09 Auckland, Maynooth, Birmingham U., Staffordshire U. Edinburgh U., DMU (3x), EPHMEE, Corfu, Aberdeen U (11/10), Rome (4/11), Stockholm (5/11), Beijing Musicacoustica (11/11), Oxford (1/12).
• “Emmerson Sampled Variations in Dee” for the Dirty Electronics Ensemble performed at DMU in 2010 and 2011.
• S.H.E.N.G. performed at DMU in 10/2011 and Beijing Musicacoustica in 11/2011 (with a photo in the China Daily newspaper).
• Radio-aktiv commissioned by and premièred at the ZKM (Karlsruhe) in 11/2011, the 3rd radio work.
• The three radio works and two works for Jos Zwaanenburg performed 3/2012 in Cultural Exchanges.