This is a recurring event: View all events in the series “Music Research Seminars”
Abstract
Since completing her PhD in 2011, Heather Roche has been researching clarinet multiphonics, drawing on a database she began compiling in 2012. In early 2026 that database became multiphonics.app, a specialist platform for composers and clarinettists who want to explore the instrument's multiphonic possibilities in depth. Heather built the app herself using Lovable, an AI-assisted "vibe coding" tool.
In this talk Heather will demonstrate the app's core features alongside some of the experimental tools and search functions currently in development.
She will also consider what the project suggests beyond its specialist focus: how the sustained, detailed knowledge that practice research produces can underpin a freelance career and a commercial product, proving the value of such research both within and outside of the academy.
About the speaker
Referred to as “The Queen of Multiphonics” on BBC Radio 3, clarinettist, improviser, and new music specialist Heather Roche appears regularly on concert stages around the world.
She plays with Apartment House, in duos with accordionist Eva Zöllner and double bassist Dominic Lash, and works regularly with other groups including Riot Ensemble and the LSO. Chamber music and close collaboration with composers are her jam.
She has worked with composers including Marc Andre, Jürg Frey, Bára Gísladóttir, Laurence Crane, Annika Socolofsky, Martin Iddon, Scott McLaughlin, Hollie Harding, and many more.
She has solo CDs on NMC and Métier, and records regularly for the Another Timbre label, currently appearing on over 35 records. Her blog on contemporary clarinet writing and her new app for clarinet multiphonics, multiphonics.app, are regularly cited as key resources for her instrument.
She is also the clarinet tutor for the Darmstadt Summer Course. She lives in southeast London with her partner and their cat, Vera.
Performing Arts Research Seminars are hosted by SPARC (Sound Practice and Research at City St George’s) in the Department of Performing Arts at City St George’s, University of London. They bring together world-leading artists, practitioners, and scholars in the broad fields of performing arts.
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