Ed Cooper

Profile

I am a composer, artist, and researcher based in Leeds, UK. Encompassing Deep Listening techniques, considerations of time, and the instabilities of musical bodies, my practice centres around sonic liminalities. In particular, I’m interested in attempting to sustain these ephemeral ‘in-betweens’, perhaps perpetually, in the (aural) attention of both listeners and performers. As such, my work is often very quiet, fragmentary, and starts and ends become immaterial.

My music has been performed across North America and Europe and I have worked with international ensembles and artists such as Apartment House, Reanimation Orchestra, Jack Adler-McKean, Ryoko Akama, Heather Roche, and Kate Ledger. In 2019, my piece places/place was featured on BBC Radio 3 and I was awarded the Berkofsky Arts Award for my sound installation Experiencing Time/Timing Experience. In 2016, I attended the Irish Composition Summer School to work with John McLachlan, Gráinne Mulvey and The Robinson Panoramic Quartet.

I am currently studying a practice-led PhD at the University of Leeds, supervised by Martin Iddon and Scott McLaughlin; this is fully funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, through the White Rose College of Arts and Humanities (WRoCAH).

I have published writings in TEMPO investigating Wandelweiser music and masculinity, and also in SoundEffects examining homelessness and sound studies.

I teach on a variety of undergraduate modules at the University of Leeds. I also sing tenor in The Clothworkers Consort of Leeds.

Pronouns: he/him. Orcid profile.

Research interests

• composition
• new music
• experimental music
• liminality
• time in music
• ambiguity
• Pauline Oliveros
• homelessness
• Wandelweiser
• masculinity

Qualifications

• MMus Critical and Experimental Composition
• BA Music (International)