Gavin Wayte

Dr Gavin Wayte is a composer, conductor and pianist working in a variety of genres from opera to multimedia performance. I favour in particular collaborating with other artists, and my work has been performed nationally and internationally, at, among other places, the Royal Opera House, Linbury Theatre, Teatro de la Fenice, Venice, HIP festival, North Carolina, USA, as well as at the opening night of the BBC Philharmonic Studio, MediaCity UK, Salford. Typical works include Hot To Trot Love Bot for actor-harpsichordist, Arrival at the Engine Room for cello and live multi-media, Bones of Spring for dancers, harpist and live multi-media and Revolve, for dancers and instruments, performed on location in Manchester City Centre as part of Urban Moves festival.

Competition successes include being shortlisted for the Henri Dutilleux Composition Competition, Joint Winner Sligo International Composition Competition, Sound and Music (SPNM) promoted composer.

My PhD in Composition was from the University of Manchester (2007), after which I took training at the Centre Acanthes and worked on the Royal Opera House’s VOX opera writing scheme. As a conductor, I have worked with Psappha, Manchester Camerata and BBC Philharmonic ensemble and with freelance, project-specific ensembles. I have previously taught composition, conducting and musicology at the University of Nottingham and Salford University.

As a champion for creativity for all, I teach composition and musical skills at summer schools and have previously been a music tutor for the Open College of Arts. In addition to my Fellow role at the RNCM, I am contemporary music lead and composition tutor for the RNCM junior department.

• Music and Nature
• Creative collaboration
• Present day creative engagement with historical instruments and historical instrument performance
• Creative approaches to music career development in the contemporary world

Gavin collaborates with flautist Dr Martyn Shaw (Leeds Conservatoire) to investigate how joint research into historically informed performance practice and historical cultural contexts and contemporary composition and contexts might lead to new insights and usable knowledge in musical performance, composition and creativity. This has led to a series of composition and improvisation performances, often involving electronics, for an original flute from 1839, the ‘Nicholson’s “Improved” Flute’. Recent trajectories of investigation include exploring how aspects of materiality may provide a lens to lead to new creative work and insights into contemporary and historical performance practices.

Since 2018 Gavin has focused on musical creativity connected to nature. This has produced a series of compositions ranging from piano and electronics to video pieces and has recently developed into creative collaborations with other artists including percussionist Delia Stevens and the Royal Academy of Music’s Professor of Low Flutes, Dr Carla Rees. Allied with these musical creative outputs, Gavin has led research projects connected to contemporary issues concerning the natural world including ‘How May Music Projects Enable Positive Environmental Action’. Supported by an RNCM research grant, this project brought together RNCM student focus groups, RNCM postgraduate performers and students from Ashton Sixth Form College, Tameside in creative workshops and think tank scenarios.

Broader aspects of research which feed into the above primary routes of investigation include sonic spatialisation and the creation of sonic space in live instrumental and electronic performance, contemporary improvisation, and ensemble and performer interaction in the performance of notated scores.