Profiles

Born in Bellshill, Lanarkshire, Spencer studied composition with Graham Hair at Glasgow University where he received an MA in Music and Scottish Literature. Between 1997 and 2002, he completed a MusM and PhD in Composition with Geoff Poole at Manchester University.  Since 1998 he has worked privately with James Dillon, on whose work he has published two articles.  In 2003, he received a stipend to attend the International Summer Course for Composers at Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, where he worked with Chaya Czernowin, Steve Takasugi and Richard Barrett.  He has given talks and seminars on his own music and other aspects of new music in France and the USA, as well as around the UK.  

Currently Lecturer in Composition and Critical Musicology at the University of 

Leeds, Spencer’s music has been performed at the Henze Festival (RNCM), St 

Cyprian’s Church (London), The Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (twice 

short-listed for the Young Composers’ Competition in 2000 and 2003), Instal 2002 

(Glasgow), Maxis 2003 Festival (Leeds), in workshops by the Apollo Sax Quartet, 

Psappha, at the Darmstädter Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, 2004, and 

extensively at Glasgow, Manchester and Leeds Universities. Toxic Knuckle Bones 

was performed by the BBC Philharmonic under James MacMillan on Radio 3’s ‘Hear 

and Now’ programme in 2001. In 2006, his work Strike softly, away from body was 

toured around the UK (including the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival) by 

the ensemble ROUT.  His work la mer allée avec le soleil has been performed by Ensemble SurPlus in Stuttgart and Freiburg.  Significant works from the last few years include The Lynx Arc (for solo improvising tenor saxophone and 12 players), the string quartet Délire, Si vous êtes pris dans le rêve de l’autre, vous êtez foutu for seven percussionists and an ongoing cycle exploring the notion of fragmentation in 

music called Message from Aiwass.  Trio Atem, with whom he worked closely, recently premiered his piece  ...quel velen che dolcemente ancide... for soprano, flute(s) and violoncello.

His interests in terms of critical musicology focus on German and French thinking, particularly that of Adorno and post-Adorno thinking and the French School (especially Foucault, see below).  He has taught the work and thinking of Feldman, Lachenmann, Stockhausen, Xenakis, Ferneyhough, Dillon, Lindberg, Maxwell Davies, Birtwistle, Spahlinger, Cage, Varèse, Finnissy, Sorabji, Berg, Boulez, Reich, Messiaen, Barrett, Tenney and many more, as well as teaching sessions on heavy metal, pop music, and semiotic analysis (which he taught at the University of Manchester and which informs his compositional thinking).  Other areas which are of primary interest include approaches to notation, improvisation and the aesthetics of the younger German school of composers of the last 20 years.  His students at the University of Leeds are a diverse bunch, many of whom disagree vehemently with him, and some of whom agree with him but feel he is not extreme enough. Such is life, especially the life of an academic.  His current PhD students include: Vicky Burrett, Adam Ferguson, Roddy Hawkins, Kevin Laycock (School of Fine Art, University of Leeds), Caroline Lucas, Marcello Messina, Lauren Redhead, Michael Walters.

Spencer co-ordinates and conducts the new music ensemble at the University of Leeds, LSTwo (it should be noted that he is indebted to the PhD student Adam Fergler for his excellent conducting skills in order to programme any of the following). In recent times they have performed: Kreuzspiel (Stockhausen); Le marteau sans maître (Boulez); Vortex Temporum (Grisey); Kleines Requiem für Eine Polka (Górecki); “...zwei Gefühle...", Musik mit Leonardo (Lachenmann); Intégrales (Varèse); Ionisation (Varèse); …as others see us… (James MacMillan); Afatsim (Czernowin).  Future performances by the ensemble include that of Scott Kennedy French, Beat Furrer and the continued commitment of LSTwo to developing and performing postgraduate student work.

Spencer’s most recent work is for solo clarinet/kick-drum (one player) entitled Ungrund (after Boehme) II which was premiered in Strasbourg in May before coming to Leeds for a UK premiere in April 2010.  Current work in progress includes a large scale project entitled Intervolve which explores the possibilities of the double bass within the framework of the thinking of Michel Foucault (as a result of which he will be on research leave from September 2009-January 2010).  The triptych is for accordion and double bass; improvising solo double bass, three improvisers and three non improvisers, and a work for bass flute, harp and double bass.  Several research papers and a possible book chapter will also result from this project.  As well as the projects out-lined above, he will be writing a work for 20 pianos for the Steinway Showcase at the University of Leeds (Spring 2010), a new work for Adam Starkie (clarinet and piano) to be premiered 2010 and a work for solo piano for Ian Pace. The Eemis Stane - Homage to K.S. Sorabji is available on a CD collection of new piano music recorded by Aleks Szram (fonorum label 2005).