Stuart McCallum

From jazz beginnings to alt-folk and electronica, Dr Stuart McCallum is one of the most vital and creative musicians of his generation. An in-demand guitarist, composer, producer and educator, Stuart’s current projects include:

• The Breath – signed to Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records, the duo of Stuart and vocalist Rioghnach Connolly was nominated for Best Act at the BBC Folk Awards.

• Solitude – a series of solo acoustic guitar albums released on Edition Records.

• Music for Imaginary Film – a series of cinematic-inspired albums co-written with Mark Slater

• Richard Spaven – co-writing and performing with the well known UK drummer

• Research – Stuart’s research interests are practice-based approaches to contemporary music performance, composition and production in immersive audio studio and live environments. He completed his musical composition doctorate, ‘Making Music in the Real World’, in 2020.

Stuart rose to prominence writing for and playing with the Cinematic Orchestra, on their Ma Fleur and Live at the Royal Albert Hall albums, as well as on their award winning Disney soundtrack, The Crimson Wing.

Stuart’s varied career has involved collaborations with electronic artists such as Jordan Rakei, James Zoo, JP Cooper and Bjork percussionist Manu Delago; performances with UK jazz greats John Surman and Kenny Wheeler; recordings with American jazz stars Ari Hoenig, Ira Coleman and Dan Weisz;  and performances with prominent folk artists, such as Danny Thompson and Michael McGoldrick.

• Performance, composition and production for immersive audio environments
• Solo guitar compositions

Stuart's research focuses on immersive audio, including music-making in Dolby Atmos and live speaker arrays (DnB Soundscape) – incorporating immersive audio technologies and practices in contemporary music composition and production.