Scott Wilson
Co-Director
Canadian-born Scott Wilson is the co-director of BEAST and director of the Electroacoustic Music Studios at the University of Birmingham, where he is Reader in Electronic Music. Primarily a composer, his works have been presented internationally, and include compositions for both instrumental and electroacoustic forces, as well as structured improvisations for networked music ensembles (usually with BEER, the Birmingham Ensemble for Electroacoustic Research). He has been active in developing software for BEAST and new approaches for large-scale multichannel electroacoustic composition. He is also active in the development of the SuperCollider computer music language, and was the lead editor of The SuperCollider Book, published by MIT Press.
Annie Mahtani
Co-director
Annie Mahtani is Lecturer in Music at The University of Birmingham. She completed her PhD under the supervision of Jonty Harrision in 2008 and describes her return to the department in 2014 as a welcome ‘homecoming’. An electroacoustic composer and sound artist, Annie composes music for fixed medium often utilising multichannel resources. As a dedicated sound forager Annie’s music is created from found sounds often incorporating recordings made during her travels both near and far.
A keen collaborator, she has worked extensively with dance and theatre companies. In recent years she has been developing a live performance practice for her work, performed live across the UK and Europe. She has performed in concerts and festivals worldwide and received a number of commissions including those from Jazzlines and PRS Women in Music, Birmingham Hippodrome, Modulate and Rosie Kay Dance Company.
https://www.anniemahtani.co.uk
Christopher Haworth
Christopher Haworth is a musicologist and composer with interests in electroacoustic and computer music. His scholarly work has included analyses of Iannis
Xenakis’s electroacoustic music; digital musicological investigations into popular music’s entanglement with the internet; and work on the changing relations between academic and nonacademic electroacoustic music. His compositional work has explored spatialisation, systems art, and the use of psychoacoustic phenomena as musical material, often with a focus on live presentation.
https://soundcloud.com/littlshyningman
Simon Smith
Studio Technician
Simon is a sound artist, sound maker, music technician specialising in sound diffusion and alternative DJ. Some of his interests include listening practices in acousmatic music and experimental improvisation.
Marty Fisk
BEAST Administrator