About

Notes On My Practice

“My work often has an observational quality. I am drawn to the things around me, nature, people, experiences, and I use my work to point at them (a ’la John Baldessari). When writing, I often use multiple layers of small interfering processes or procedures which I lovingly call “isoprocesses” (derived from isorhythm). These isoprocesses imbue my music with a sense of revolving internal logic, but also a feeling of drift.”

Biography

Peter Bell (b.1996) is a composer and performer based in Birmingham, UK. His diverse creative practice spans multiple contexts, from concert music and electronics through to experimental performance and theatre. Much of his work is underpinned by an observational quality. 

Peter has collaborated with many incredible musicians, artists and venues including: Quatuor Bozzini, New European Ensemble, Orgelpark, Decibel, Michelle O’Rourke, Thallein Ensemble, Orchestra of the Swan, Richard Baker, CoMA Summer School, LEAP Ensemble and RBC Theatre Company.

He holds Masters and Bachelors degrees in composition from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (RBC) where he studied with Howard Skempton, Joe Cutler, Andrew Hamilton, Seán Clancy, Andrew Toovey, Andy Ingamells and Benjamin Tassie. Upon completing his Bachelors in 2018 he won the RBC Composition Prize. Peter has been a Visting Tutor at RBC since 2019, teaching undergraduate composers music technology.

Peter is part of an informal collective of musicians and performers from other disciplines who collaboratively create large-scale outdoor performances fusing music with theatre and movement. Alongside a number of smaller community focused events, the collective has developed and performed Will we impress good Queen Bess a community theatre day at Kenilworth Castle funded by English Heritage and Alex and Peter: A Book of Portraits a promenade performance in the village of Hatton Warwickshire. Both projects engaged local schools and community groups through workshops and roles in the performances.

As a performer, Peter regularly performs DIY solo electronic music sets with a modular synthesizer, often reimagining material from his concert works through the lens of electronic improvisation. He is also one half of Open Union, an ambient experimental music duo with composer and guitarist Patrick Ellis. Together they collaborate with other composers to create new open-ended and flexible works, described by composer Howard Skempton as being, 'sometimes subtle and unstable; sometimes rich and dense'. Open Union have performed across the UK and in 2023 undertook a short tour of the Netherlands in collaboration with Sounding Here Concert Series. Their current collaborators are Christine Cornwell, Wilson Leywantono, May Chi and Paolo Griffin, with a new piece by Seán Clancy currently in the works.

Peter has performed as part of many festivals and series including: Supersonic Festival, Ideas of Noise, Flatpack Film Festival, Ealing Extranormal CODA Festival, AMOK and Frontiers Festival.