Jeremy Peyton Jones

Jeremy sadly passed away in July 2021.

Jeremy was Reader in Music and Director of Studies.

Jeremy Peyton Jones was a composer with a particular interest in the intersection between music/theatre/performance/ live art and other time-based media. He was nominated for the Paul Hamlyn Artists Award 2015.

He studied at Dartington College of Arts and Goldsmiths and in the 1970’s worked with John Cage and Christian Wolff. His work has been performed across the UK, Europe, Australia and North America and is regularly broadcast in the USA, Australia and the UK. Commissions include works for The Balanescu Quartet, The Harmonie Band, a chamber opera for The Royal Opera House's Garden Venture, the Australian contemporary music ensemble Topology and BBC Radio 3. He wrote works for the Canadian electric guitarist Tim Brady, harpsichordist Jane Chapman and the keyboard duo Keynote+. In 2002 he was composer in residence at the Queensland Conservatorium, Brisbane. Projects included the ongoing music/theatre series Against Oblivion, Part 3 of which was premiered at Teatro Garibaldi, Palermo by the Sicilian Improvisers Orchestra in April 2014, Endings, a collaboration with electronic composer/sound artist Kaffe Matthews, and soundtracks for Imitating the Dog Theatre Company The Zero Hour (2012), A Farewell to Arms (2014) and The Train (2015)

He was conductor and artistic director of the ensemble Regular Music II, with whom he recorded two albums and performed across the UK, at European festivals and on BBC Radio 3. The ensemble was voted among the top 18 international contemporary music ensembles by Gramophone Magazine and their CD North South East West was voted "Best Modern Composition CD" by The Wire in 1996.

Two years spent programming new music and live performance at the Midland Group Arts Centre in Nottingham brought him into contact with experimental live art, theatre and dance companies and he subsequently worked collaboratively with several theatre companies writing scores for the seminal A Place in Europe for Impact Theatre Cooperative, large-scale site-specific works for Lumiere & Son Theatre Company, several collaborations with director Pete Brooks and Insomniac Productions. He worked closely with writers setting texts by Claire MacDonald, Russell Hoban, Kathy Acker, David Gale, Tim Etchells and Deborah Levy. 

Teaching

Undergraduate: Composition; Minimalism and Post-Minimalism; Mapping 20th-Century Music; Creative Research Project; Questions of Dramaturgy. 

Postgraduate: Creative Project; Composition and Moving Image Media

Areas of supervision

Music, theatre and performance; Interdisciplinary collaboration and devising; Contemporary Composition

Performances

The Train (soundtrack) for Imitating the Dog Theatre Company. Teatro Delle Muse, Ancona, Italy October-November 2015 and UK tour 2016

A Farewell to Arms (soundtrack) for Imitating the Dog Theatre Company. The Dukes Lancaster and UK/Italy tour 2014

Against Oblivion Part 3, with the Sicilian Improvisers Orchestra, Curva Minore, 3 April 2014, Cantieri Culturali alla Zisa, Palermo; 4 April 2014 Teatro Garibaldi, Palermo

Endings (voices, amplified ensemble and electronics) Regular Music II and Kaffe Matthews, De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill, 24 May 2012, Purcell Room, Southbank Centre, London 26 May 2012, Arnolfini, Bristol, 31 May 2012

The Zero Hour (aka Stunde Null) soundtrack. Imitating the Dog Theatre Company Writer: Andrew Quick, Director: Pete Brooks, Platform Theatre, Kings Cross, 9 January 2012, UK tour autumn/winter 2012/13, Venue 150, EICC, Edinburgh, 20-24 August 2013

Jilted music/theatre for 2 voices and tape. Melanie Pappenheim and Rebecca Askew, Bath International Literature Festival, Bath, 3 March 2012, Tête à Tête Opera Festival, London, 4/5 August 2012

Sounding Boxes harpsichord and prepared piano. Keynote+, Jane Chapman (harpsichord), Kate Ryder (piano) Royal Festival Hall, London 20 May 2011

Against Oblivion Part 2, Regular Music II. Tête á Tête: The Opera Festival. Performed at Riverside Studios, London, 30/31 July 2009.

18 Guitars 16 electric guitars, 2 bass guitars. The Multiplier Kings Place, London, 19 May 2009

Out of Gat and Brodszky solo piano. Andriana Minou, Council Chamber, Goldsmiths, London, 13 September 2008

Halelujah solo contralto and SATB chorus. Elysian Singers, cond. Anthony Pitts, St Stephens Walbrook, London, 17 October 2007

Against Oblivion Part 1, 2 voices, soprano sax/alto sax, bass trombone, harpsichord/marimba, electric keyboards/accordion, violin, viola. Regular Music II, Toynbee Studios Theatre, London, 29 and 30 March 2007

In Memoriam Gat and Brodszky solo harpsichord. Jane Chapman. Autumn Festival, Norwich, 20 October 2007

Recordings, broadcasts and film

The Zero Hour soundtrack CD In: Andrew Quick, ed. The Zero Hour and Six Degrees Below the Horizon: Performance Texts, Essays and Documentation. Lancaster: Live at LICA, 2014

Endings Live at the Arnolfini Regular Music II with Kaffe Matthews, Recorded at Arnolfini, Bristol, 31 May 2012. CD RMII131 2013

Wardance 1 Regular Music II, New Sounds Program 'European Postminimalism', WNYC 6 September 2013 

North South East West Regular Music II, New Sounds Program 'Lost Music', WNYC 15 February 2011

Hot Milk Madonna film score. Written and directed by Deborah Levy with Pia Borg. Screenings Royal College of Art, London 6 May 2009; ANIMAC 2010 Film Festival, LLerida, Spain, 28 February 2010, ARTELEKU, San Sebastian, 5 March 2010

18 Guitars Tim Brady. New Sounds Program WNYC 'Multiple Motoric Guitars' 16 October 2013, 28 January 2013, 'Music for Electric Guitars' 30 May 2010

The Third Dream New Sounds Program 'New Music from the UK' WNYC September 23, 2008 and August 02, 2009 

Purcell Manoeuvres, No. 2 Purcell Manoeuvres, No. 4, War Dance No. 1 WNYC New Sounds Program 'The Pulse of Minimalism' 30 July 2011, New Sounds Program 'Minimal Borrowing' 9 June 2009

18 Guitars new recording by Tim Brady, on CD '10 Collaborations' (Jtr-8485-2) Justin Time Records 2000

18 Guitars recording by Tim Brady, on CD Unknown Public Issue 10 'Naked', (UP10) 1998

Deadwood on Century XXI UK (CD nt6751 2) Robi Droli Newtone Records 1997

Wardance II on Unknown Public 01 'Points of Departure'

The Fourth Door on Music from the Edge, Vol 1. Margen CD

North South East West CD (Nt  6748 2) Robi Droli Newtone Records. Tracklist: Wardance I, Wardance II, Going Down, Purcell Manoeuvres 2 & 4, North South East West, The Gazetteer of World Order, The Only Winner 1996

Regular Music (Rough 73) Rough Trade Records. Including: Idyllic Rhythms, The Third Dream, The Fourth Door, The Fourth Door Dub

Conferences and papers

Hierarchies of creative interaction –the political aspects of collaboration between composer and improvising musicians in Against Oblivion, Part 3. Paper at 'Compositional Aesthics and the Political', 20-22 February 2015

Liveness invited speaker for Curating Sound Seminar and Panel Discussion, Nottingham Contemporary 11 Dec 2013

Beyond Opera - sound production as theatrical action Research Forum, Dept of Music, University of Surrey. Music Dept, University of Surrey. 21 November 2012

Sound Production as Theatrical Action (Keynote) Sound, Music and the Moving-Thinking Body Conference, The Institute of Music Research, Senate House, University of London, 19 April 2012

Composition, interaction and collaboration CADRE 2012-13 Public Lecture Series, Centre for Art, Design, Research and Experimentation. University of Wolverhampton, 11 December 2012

Repetition, narrative, and the concept of endings (musical and metaphorical) Graduate Forum, Centre for Contemporary Music Cultures. Goldsmiths, University of London, United Kingdom. 8 February 2011

Accommodating the threat of the machine: the act of repetition in live performance Third Colloquium of the Society for Minimalist Music, University of Wolverhampton, 10 April 2011