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Samuel Messer - The Open College of the Arts

To find out more details about the transfer to The Open University see A New Chapter for OCA.

Samuel Messer

I’m a composer, teacher and pianist (roughly in that order) living and working in Canterbury & East Kent. As of September 2022, I’m in the closing stages of a PhD at Royal Holloway, University of London, where I study with Mark Bowden.

I like quiet, lithe, sometimes spectral sounds. My music is often slow and soft, tending towards the discontinuous and, increasingly, the ‘ambient’. There are microtones, pitches placed inbetween the notes on the piano keyboard, which help me create a grainy, dimly-lit timbral effect.

In recent years I’ve been exploring ways in which performers can be given freedom from the usually-strict nature of the musical score, and subsequently shape the structure of the work, whilst keeping the surface (the ‘soundworld’) focused and sharply-defined. I think that this creates an unusual energy, and adds a level of delicacy to the experience of the music; each performance is similar to, but not the same as, any other.

My music has been performed throughout the UK and workshopped/recorded more widely, by various groups: Royal Northern Sinfonia, rarescale, Psappha, Octandre Ensemble, CHROMA, CoMA, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Dr K Sextet, and Bangkok Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, amongst others.

As a teacher I have taught privately since 2011, and from 2017-2022 was a teaching assistant on the undergraduate programme at Royal Holloway, University of London.

www.samuelmesser.co.uk
soundcloud.com/samuelmesser