Nick Roth (born 27 April 1982) is an Irish / British saxophonist, composer, producer and educator.

Work

Roth's work explores the liberation of

improvisation Improvisation, often shortened to improv, is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. The origin of the word itself is in the Latin "improvisus", which literally means un-foreseen. Improvis ...

from composition, the poetic syntax of philosophical enquiry, and the function of music as translative

epistemology Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that examines the nature, origin, and limits of knowledge. Also called "the theory of knowledge", it explores different types of knowledge, such as propositional knowledge about facts, practical knowle ...

(MaTE). He has developed projects in collaboration with scientists Thomas E. Lovejoy, Margaret D. Lowman, Iain Couzin and Henry S. Horn and his work has been commissioned and performed by the European Saxophone Ensemble, T. S. Eliot Foundation, RTÉ ConTempo Quartet, Happy Days International Beckett Festival, Trio InVento, The Ark Cultural Centre for Children, Dublin Dance Festival, Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, Yurodny Ensemble, Emma Martin Dance,

National Concert Hall The National Concert Hall (NCH) (An Ceoláras Náisiúnta) is a national cultural institution, sometimes described as "the home of music in Ireland". It comprises the actual concert hall operation, which in various chambers hosts over 1,000 ...

Dublin, Temenos and Rough Magic Theatre Company, with performances at international festivals including the Irish representation at the

ISCM The International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) is a music organization that promotes contemporary classical music. The organization was established in Salzburg in 1922 as Internationale Gesellschaft für Neue Musik (IGNM) following the ...

World Music Days 2016 in

Tongyeong Tongyeong (; ) is a coastal Administrative divisions of South Korea, city in South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea. It has an area of and in 2010, a population of 139,869 people. It is divided into 1 eup (town), 6 myeon (township) and 11 dong (n ...

, South Korea. As a performer, his collaborations include work with

Jennifer Walshe Jennifer Walshe (born 1 June 1974) is an Irish composer, vocalist and artist. Biography Jennifer Walshe was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1974. She studied composition with John Maxwell Geddes at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama ...

, Savina Yannatou,

John Taylor John Taylor, Johnny Taylor or similar is the name of: Academics *John Taylor (Oxford), Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University, 1486–1487 * John Taylor (classical scholar) (1704–1766), English classical scholar *John Taylor (English publisher) ...

Iarla Ó Lionáird Iarla Ó Lionáird (born ) is an Irish singer and record producer. He sings in the traditional Sean-nós singing, sean-nós style. He was a member of the Afro Celt Sound System and is a member of the Irish-American supergroup (music), supergroup ...

, M.C. Schmidt,

Gavin Bryars Richard Gavin Bryars (; born 16 January 1943) is an English composer and double bassist. He has worked in jazz, free improvisation, minimalism, Musical historicism, historicism, Avant-garde music, avant-garde, and experimental music. Early lif ...

Bobby McFerrin Robert Keith McFerrin Jr. (born March 11, 1950) is an American singer, songwriter, and conductor (music), conductor. His Vocal pedagogy, vocal techniques include singing fluidly but with quick and considerable jumps in Pitch (music), pitch—fo ...

, Tom Arthurs, Lucas Niggli, Kate Ellis, Mihály Borbély, Matthew Jacobson, Miklós Lukács, Francesco Turrisi,

Cora Venus Lunny Cora Venus Lunny (born 1982) is an Irish violinist, composer, and singer. She is the daughter of Irish musician Dónal Lunny and German photographer Julia Buthe. Established as a classical musician since her teens, Lunny is active as a soloi ...

Crash Ensemble Crash Ensemble is an Irish new music ensemble, which performs a range of contemporary classical music, as well as touring and organising festivals. History The group, which is based in Dublin, was founded in 1997 by composer Donnacha Dennehy, co ...

, Alex Bonney, Petar Ralchev, Zohar Fresco, Alkinoos Ioannidis,

Theodosii Spassov Theodosii Spassov Yordanov (, , born 4 March 1961) is a Bulgarian Folklore and jazz musician who plays kaval. Theodosii Spassov began his early training on the kaval at the Kotel Music School and The Academy of Music and Dance in Plovdiv/Bulg ...

, and world premières of new works by composers

Mamoru Fujieda is a Japanese composer associated with the postminimalist movement of contemporary classical music. Biography He received a Ph.D. in music from the University of California, San Diego in 1988. His composition instructors have included Joji Yuas ...

, Alla Zagaykevych,

Dan Trueman Dan Trueman is a composer, fiddle player, improviser, new instrument creator and software designer. He plays the violin and the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle. Trueman studied physics at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, composition and theo ...

, Ian Wilson,

Benjamin Dwyer Benjamin Dwyer (born 3 August 1965) is an Irish composer, guitarist and musicologist. Life Dwyer was born in Dublin and studied the classical guitar at the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama, Dublin, and at the Royal Academy of Music, London. ...

, Panos Ghikas,

Kamran Ince Kamran N. Ince (spelled İnce in Turkish, born May 6, 1960) is a Turkish-American composer. He is the winner of many prestigious awards, including a Rome Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Lili Boulanger Memorial Prize, and various others. His ...

Roger Doyle Roger Doyle (born 17 July 1949) is an Irish composer best known for his electro-acoustic work, for which he was made a Saoi of Aosdána, and for his piano music for theatre. Education Born in Malahide, County Dublin, Doyle studied piano from ...

, Judith Ring, Mel Mercier, Linda Buckley,

Ed Bennett Ed Bennett (born 15 March 1975) is a composer of contemporary art music. Biography Bennett was born in Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland. Having studied with Brian Irvine (composer), Brian Irvine at North Down College and with Michael Finn ...

, Onur Türkmen, Christian Mason, Francis Heery, Piaras Hoban and Elaine Agnew. As an educator, he has lectured and given workshops at the

California Academy of Sciences The California Academy of Sciences is a research institute and natural history museum in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, that is among the largest List of natural history museums, museums of natural history in the world, housing over ...

Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...

(TCD),

European Space Research and Technology Centre The European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) is the European Space Agency's main technology development and test centre for spacecraft and space technology. It is situated in Noordwijk, South Holland, in the western Netherlands, alth ...

(ESTEC),

University College Cork University College Cork – National University of Ireland, Cork (UCC) () is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland, and located in Cork (city), Cork. The university was founded in 1845 as one of three Queen's Universit ...

(UCC), Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC),

University College Dublin University College Dublin (), commonly referred to as UCD, is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 38,417 students, it is Ireland's largest ...

(UCD), Institute for Biodiversity, Science and Sustainability, San Francisco (IBSS), Cork School of Music (CSM),

University of Limerick University of Limerick (UL) () is a Public university, public research university institution in Limerick, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Founded in 1972, as the National Institute for Higher Education, Limerick, it became a university in Septemb ...

(UL),

University of Aalborg Aalborg University (AAU) is an international public university with campuses in Aalborg, Esbjerg, and Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1974, the university awards bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, and PhD degrees in a wide variety of subje ...

, Copenhagen,

National University of Ireland The National University of Ireland (NUI) () is a federal university system of ''constituent universities'' (previously called '' constituent colleges'') and ''recognised colleges'' set up under the Irish Universities Act 1908, and signifi ...

(NUI),

Royal Irish Academy of Music Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family or royalty Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Roy ...

(RIAM) and the Norwegian Center for Technology in Music and the Arts (NOTAM). He is the artistic director of the Yurodny Ensemble, a founding member of The Water Project, and a partner at Diatribe Records. In 2015 he was composer-in-residence at the

and the

Irish Museum of Modern Art The Irish Museum of Modern Art (), also known as IMMA, is Ireland's leading national institution for the collection and presentation of modern and contemporary art. It is located in Kilmainham, Dublin. History Irish art collector Gordon Lam ...

(IMMA) and in 2017 was artist-in-residence at the

European Space Agency The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member International organization, international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 ...

(

ESTEC The European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) is the European Space Agency's main technology development and test centre for spacecraft and space technology. It is situated in Noordwijk, South Holland, in the western Netherlands, alth ...

Biography

Roth was born into a musical family in London; brothers Alex Roth and Simon Roth are also musicians, and mother Joy Mendelsohn is a music teacher (whose past students included

Alastair King Alastair King (born 1967) is a British composer and conductor, perhaps best known for his musical contributions to film and television. He frequently collaborates with composers Charlie Mole, Geoff Zanelli, Nicholas Hooper and Rupert Gregso ...

George Michael George Michael (born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou; 25 June 1963 – 25 December 2016) was an English singer-songwriter and record producer. Regarded as a pop culture icon, he is one of the List of best-selling music artists, best-selling rec ...

and

Andrew Ridgeley Andrew John Ridgeley (born 26 January 1963) is an English musician, best known for his work in the 1980s in the musical duo Wham! consisting of Ridgeley and George Michael. Associated with the MTV-driven Second British Invasion of the US, th ...

). He is married to Ukrainian vocalist Olesya Zdorovetska and since 2001 has been based in Dublin, Ireland. He studied saxophone in London with

Gilad Atzmon Gilad Atzmon (, ; born 9 June 1963) is an Israeli-born British saxophonist, novelist, political activist, and writer. As a musician, he is best known as a saxophonist and bandleader. His instruments include the saxophone, accordion, clarinet ...

and composition in Dublin under Ronan Guilfoyle and Elaine Agnew, undertaking further studies of improvisation in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

under

Steve Coleman Steve Coleman (born September 20, 1956) is an American saxophonist, composer, bandleader and music theorist. In 2014, he was named a MacArthur Fellow. Early life Steve Coleman was born and grew up in South Side, Chicago. He started playing ...

Ravi Coltrane Ravi Coltrane (born August 6, 1965) is an American jazz saxophonist. Co-owner of the record label RKM Music, he has produced music for pianist Luis Perdomo, guitarist David Gilmore, and trumpeter Ralph Alessi. Biography Ravi Coltrane is t ...

, and

Vijay Iyer Vijay Iyer (; born Vijay Raghunathan, October 26, 1971) is a composer, pianist, bandleader, producer, writer, and professor based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' has called him a "social conscience, multimedia collaborator, system builde ...

, of pedagogy in

Kecskemét Kecskemét ( ) is a city with county rights in central Hungary. It is the List of cities and towns of Hungary, eighth-largest city in the country, and the county seat of Bács-Kiskun County, Bács-Kiskun. Kecskemét lies halfway between the ca ...

at the

Zoltán Kodály Zoltán Kodály (, ; , ; 16 December 1882 – 6 March 1967) was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, music pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is well known internationally as the creator of the Kodály method of music education. ...

Institute under Katalin Kiss, and of

Makam Maqam, makam, maqaam or maqām (plural maqāmāt) may refer to: Musical structures * Arabic maqam, melodic modes in traditional Arabic music ** Iraqi maqam, a genre of Arabic maqam music found in Iraq * Persian maqam, a notion in Persian class ...

theory and composition in Crete under Sokratis Sinopoulos and Ross Daly.

Selected works

Orchestra

*Woodland Heights (2014) ''for string orchestra'' *Flocking III (2013) ''for saxophone orchestra'' *Stille Nacht (2012) ''for jazz orchestra'' *Flocking I–II (2012) ''for string orchestra''

Solo / Ensemble

*Seed I–II (2016) ''for percussion and tape'' *Peregrinus (2016) ''for cathedral bells and electronics'' *Little Woodland Heights (2015) ''for children's ensemble'' *A Way A Lone A Last (2015) ''for recorder trio'' *Temenos (2015) ''for bass clarinet and tenor recorder'' *LakeCycle (2013) ''for piano and percussion'' *StopStart (2012) ''for variable ensemble'' *Water Project I–II (2011) ''for open ensemble and water'' *Quintet (2010) ''for bass clarinet and string quartet'' *Maoz Tsur (2010) ''for choir SSAA'' *Jamilia (2009) ''for piano'' *Griffmadár (2009) ''for large ensemble'' *I am the Sea (2009) ''for voice and piano'' *pliARS (2009) ''for large ensemble'' *Evenset (2008) ''for large ensemble'' *Parah (2008) ''for clarinet quartet'' *Innehølder (2006) ''for large ensemble''

Theatre

*The Waste Land (2015) ''for four voices, jazz quintet and film'' *CAOS (2015) ''for dancer and improvising ensemble'' *Tundra (2014) ''for ensemble and tape'' *Vartn af Godot (2014) ''for ensemble'' *Peer Gynt (2013) ''for ensemble'' *Don Giovanni (2011) ''for voices, ensemble and electronics''

Discography

References

External links

*
Contemporary Music Centre Portal
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Roth, Nick 1982 births 21st-century British classical composers 21st-century Irish classical composers Irish classical composers Living people British male saxophonists 21st-century saxophonists 21st-century British male musicians Composers from London