Dr Dorothy Ker
Department of Music
The University of Sheffield
Jessop Building
34 Leavygreave Road
Sheffield
S3 7RD
Tel: +44 (0) 114 222 0496
Fax: +44 (0) 114 222 0469
email : d.ker@sheffield.ac.uk
Biography
Composer Dorothy Ker joined the Music Department in February 2005 as a DTI Academic Fellow. Her research at Sheffield centres on developing new strategies for composition through collaborative, cross-disciplinary projects, exploiting technology and mixed media in the context of performance and theatre-based work.
Dr Ker emigrated to the UK from New Zealand in 1992. She studied with Nicola Lefanu and Harrison Birtwistle, completing a PhD at York University in 1998. In 2000-2001 she received a Year of the Artist award for her project Music for Quiet Spaces, featuring violinist Mieko Kanno. From 2001-2004 she held an AHRB Creative Arts Fellowship at Reading University. Dr Ker´s music is performed and broadcast in both hemispheres and has been heard at international festivals in Auckland, Belfast, Huddersfield, Taipei, Seoul, Perth and Darmstadt, in London and on BBC Radio 3. Her music is available on LORELT, performed by Lontano (see links). Forthcoming performances include a new work for the London Symphony Orchestra commissioned under the UBS Pioneers programme.
Research Interests
- composition (instrumental/vocal)
- mixed media in live performance
- music and text
- music and mathematics
- composition in education
View Dorothy Ker's Research page
Current Projects
- Awarded EPSRC PPE funding (£100k) to make a performance piece with mathematician Marcus du Sautoy (2010-2011) exploring the mathematical ideas of Henri Poincaré.
- Collaboration with Christopher Redgate on the 21st Century Oboe project.
- Collaboration with The Song Company (Australia) on a new song cycle for unaccompanied voices with electronics.
Selected Publications
- diffracted terrains: duo ii (2007) 6’
for violin, french horn and piano resonance
for Crossing Continents - six pieces locating the body (2006) 30’
Bflat clarinet/bass clarinet with live electronics
Richard Haynes (clarinets)/Dorothy Ker (computer)
Die Badcuyp, Amsterdam, December 2006 - gps for a known place (2006) 30’
six pieces locating the body (see above) with projected digital video by Kate Allen and dance by Marina Collard
Gretchen Dunsmore (clarinets)/ Dorothy Ker (computer)
University of Sheffield Drama Studio, November 2006 - diffracted terrains: quintet (2005) 17’
alto fl/bass fl, Aclar/bclar, vln, vla, vlc
for Lontano
St Michael's Lancing 11 Nov 2005
Purcell Room 25 Nov 2005 - Performance in Transit: dt remix (2005) 15’
bass clarinet with live electronics and VRML animations by Kate Allen
Transversalities Conference Reading University September 2005