Profiles
Nicholas Donovan is a freelance Composer based in the U.K. with a focus on contemporary and experimental and interdisciplinary work. A Guitarist, Pianist, Vocalist and Laptop performer, Nicholas has performed widely across the U.K. and internationally. His most recent work has seen the composition of small scale Contemporary Opera utilising a selection of vastly different traditions and practices including Gamelan, Chinese Folk, Western Orchestral and Laptop Orchestra. The performance, recording and production of this work are almost exclusively his own, working from a small home studio set-up in the Midlands.
Other recent work is the interdisciplinary project of 'Beyond the Aesthetic of Indifference' (currently a featured video on this site) in which an exploration into postmodernity saw Nicholas 'facilitate' a number of artists into an event that walks the line of performance and installation. Composing and organising all aspects of the event, Nicholas was able to realise the 'performance' of a wide variety of practices, featuring music composed for Laptop Orchestra, Postmodern Dance and Multi-Media generated visuals drawing contextual and theoretical ideas from Roland Barthes' 'Death of the Author' and 'From Work to Text'. It is within the theoretical ideas that the meta-discourse of not only the role of facilitator within postmodernity and interdisciplinary is explored but also notions of documentation in respect to ephemeral forms (performance) are referenced and engaged. The work has currently been selected and put forward for a performance at the Green Room in Manchester in June 09.
Currently a Masters student, Nicholas' most recent work is the composition of new operatic work in which intertextuality, the concepts of documentation, performance ephemerality, relational aesthetics, alter and postmodernity are explored though multi-media installation. Though still currently in composition the work's themes are to be physics (quantum theory) in relation to religion and memory.
Nicholas performs frequently with a variety of ensembles and considers collaboration with upmost importance. Ensembles including Nixan, a small experimental rock ensemble of which Nicholas has composed for, performed and fronted since 2002 currently perform all over the U.K.
A laptop ensemble featuring MMU colleagues and students has been in functioning performance since 2006, for which Nicholas composes and performs, building repertoire and experimenting with various new electroacoustic based approaches.
Click on the 'Music' section tab to listen to recent work and performances in Nicholas' portfolio.