“Live-ness is what it’s about”: City St George’s celebrates 50 years of music education

The Performance Space is dark and the sound immersive. An audience sits in rows, surrounded by 40 state-of-the-art amps and subwoofers which line the walls and ceiling, producing a dome of sound.

Flautist Carla Rees stands on stage and plays repeated and accelerating notes on her instrument. Towards the back of the room, Professor Simon Emmerson mixes and layers the sounds, building an increasingly intense atmosphere.

The performance came as part of the Made at City: 50 Years of Electroacoustic Music Created at City Sy George’s concert which took place on Tuesday 11 November.

The piece – Spirit of ’76 – was composed by Professor Emmerson 50 years ago for his PhD in Electroacoustic Music at City St George’s, University of London and used an innovative accelerating tape delay system.

The year before, in 1975, he set up the University’s music studio and founded the groundbreaking BSc in Music alongside the late Malcom Troup, then Head of Department.

Professor Emmerson said:

It was wonderful to hear my PhD composition again.

I was here for 30 years. I was here till 2004 and saw all the transition from analogue to digital to computers being introduced into all the studios.

The studio changed completely, and it's changed again today. It's a wonderful environment and there’s a terrific sound system here.

I loved teaching. I loved composing and I loved performing. What more can you want when you love making music? It's wonderful thing.

He worked with Dr Erik Nyström, an electroacoustic music composer and the Programme Director of the BSc Music, Sound and Technology at City St George’s, to select the programme of tracks for the anniversary concert.

Together, they whittled down decades of compositions to select six tracks, each composed by a PhD student, using different technologies to create distinct types of soundscapes.

The concert’s programme also included renditions of Alejandro Viñao’s Go (1980), Jo Thomas’s Glitch (1999), Erik Nyström’s Catabolisms (2011), Theodore Lotis’ Arioso Dolente (2002) and Elizabeth Anderson’s Protopia/Tesseract (2007).

He believes the future of electroacoustic music is “so open” and that although AI is going to be in the mix, live concerts will continue to be significant.

“It's live music that makes things. Live-ness is what it's about and is the future of music,” he said. “Music is fundamental to our wellbeing and mental health. It is part of a mainstream need, not a little add-on for fun.”

To continue the celebrations, a second event – Music at 50 – took place on Thursday 13 November, bringing in further strands of research and history for the Performing Arts Department.

Attending the party was alumna Phillipa Morgan, who was on the inaugural BSc Music degree and graduated in 1979.

“It is amazing and fantastic to see so many students and alumni. To think I was here right at the beginning!” she said.

She remains connected to City St George’s and is a current member of Gamelan Lila Cita, which is the UK’s leading performance group for the gamelan, which is a traditional Indonesian ensemble music using percussive instrument gongs, metallophones and drums. The group is a longstanding resident group who regularly rehearse and perform at the University.

With over 3,500 students through its doors, music education at City St George’s has continued to thrive, adapt, and educate. Research in music is one of the University’s highest-ranking areas.

Further developing its commitment to the arts and culture, the School of Communication & Creativity welcomed the performing arts school Urdang in 2023, which shapes the next generation of West End stars through training in singing, dancing and stage performance.