Researcher and composer Neil O Connor (b.1979) has been involved in experimental, electronic & electro-acoustic music for the past two decades and has performed in Ireland, Europe, Australia, Asia and the US with projects such as Somadrone and more recently, Ordnance Survey.His work was been performed at MOMA New York, IRCAM Paris, Institute of Contemporary Art, London and has held residencies at the Massachusetts Museum of Modern Art and EMS Swedish Institute of Electro-Acoustic Music, Stockholm, Sweden and has worked / collaborated with members of the Crash Ensemble, RTE Symphony Orchestra, Phillip Glass Ensemble and the Glenn Branca Ensemble. Neil has written for orchestra, large ensemble and chamber ensembles but has been more prolific within live electronics using modular synthesizers. His electroacoustic works that have won awards and mentions at Noroit-Léonce Petitot (Arras, France), Euphonie D'Or des Concours International de Musique Electroacoustique (France), Musica Nova Electroacoustic Music Competition, (Czech Republic), Concurso Internacional de Música Eletroacústica de São Paulo and had special jury mention at Prix Ars Electronica.Neil studied at Trinity College (M.Litt/PhD Electronic Music Composition) under Donnacha Denheny and Roger Doyle has lectured in Music, Composition and Performance Technology since 2005 at Art Institute of California (San Francisco), The Institute of Audio Research (New York City) and Trinity College (Dublin).
Research Interests
Research Areas: Electroacoustic Music, Modular Synthesis, Popular Music Studies
Practice Based Research:
Live Modular Synthesis
searching for sounds and their context within the moments of performance. the relationships between the musicians are directly dialogical: their music is not mediated through any external mechanism such as a score.
Solo Improvisation
conducted in the medium of sound and the musician himself is at the heart of the experiment.
Real Time Studio Composition
searching for sounds and for the responses that attach to them, rather than thinking them up, preparing them and producing them.
Scoring for Visual Media
using these processes (and others) to score for visual media
