Michael Spencer (b. 1975) - Full biography
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/music/staff/ms/
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. He is currently Lecturer in Composition and Critical Musicology at the University of Leeds.
His 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 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. His work la mer allée avec le soleil was performed there by Ensemble SurPlus and subsequently in Stuttgart and Freiburg.
In 1999, he co-founded Polaroid, an evening of new and experimental music at the Arches (Glasgow) with Tiernan Kelly and Freya Mitchell. Programmes included the Scottish premieres of Cage’s Muyoce II, Nono’s Canti Per Tredici, and performances of Stockhausen and young British composers. Polaroid was the blueprint for the Arches’ Instal Festival, for which Spencer was a consultant in 2001 and 2002, organising the performance of Ligeti’s Poème Symphonique, works by Berio and Takemitsu and the Scottish premiere of Feldman’s Instruments III. He has also conducted Glasgow University’s Kelvin Ensemble in a programme of Arkell, Yeats and Schumann. In 1999, he co-ordinated the performances of the music of Urugyan composer Graciela Paraskevaidas at Manchester University (as part of a tour of Universities organised by Stephen Davismoon). His research interests include the music of Brian Ferneyhough, James Dillon, Helmut Lachenmann, improvisation, live electronic-performer interaction, aesthetics and semiotic analysis which he taught at Manchester University for seven years. In 2003, he gave a lecture-recital a Glasgow University, a master-class in composition at the Junior Department of Trinity College of Music (London) and he was resident composition tutor for the National Youth Brass Band.
At the University of Leeds, he runs and conducts the new music ensemble LSTwo who have recently performed Stockhausen’s Kreuzspiel, Varèse’s Intégrales and Ionisation, Lachenmann’s '...zwei Gefühle...', Musik mit Leonardo, Grisey’s Vortex Temporum and Boulez’s Le marteau sans maître. Future performances will include Chaya Czernowin’s Afatsim and James MacMillan’s …as others see us…. He has published several articles on the creative process as well as on James Dillon’s music.
Current work in progress includes a piano work for Mariko Ono called Orion Amok, a piece for cello and piano for Rohan de Saram and Noriko Kawai, a solo piano work for Ian Pace and a work for bass flute, harp and double bass. 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).