17 February 2026
Over the past few years I’ve focused quite frequently on ecological themes and subjects in my work. Since 2025, with my Durham University colleague Eric Egan, I’ve been developing a project called Composing Ecology, springing from my previous work with CoMA and focused on making text (or nearly text) scores for use by individuals and groups.
The purpose is to offer ways of engendering a deeper connection with the living environment through engaging creatively with sound. I’ve been making a collection of these pieces, very much still ongoing, called New Nature Pieces, which I’ve so far workshopped with lots of different groups, including all-comer participants, mental health recovery participants and GCSE Music students.
We have just launched a website, where all these pieces can be downloaded freely and made use of. My hope is that some of these pieces will seem attractive to people to have a go at with their groups or students or friends, or on their own – there are several for individuals to do. Some are more obviously ‘musical’ than others, but many are performable by anyone at all. The meditational, ‘wellbeing’ potential of this kind of activity is very much part of the concept.
Beyond the website, the project consists mostly of workshops in different places and for different people. I’ve loved getting to know the people attending the ARCH Recovery College in Durham, focused on mental health recovery, and will be starting some new sessions at ReCoCo in Newcastle in the Spring. I’ll also be continuing a very valuable project with the Y10 GCSE Music at St Leonard’s School in Durham. One-off sessions will take place at Swaledale Festival (May) and the Botanic Garden in Durham for MUSICON (June), and I’m particularly excited about a whole weekend of activity in Hawkwood College, Stroud, also in June. Beyond that – we’ll see how this thing develops…