About

Jonathan Impett is Director of Research at the Orpheus Institute, Ghent, and Associate Professor at Middlesex University (London, UK).

His professional and research activities cover many aspects of contemporary musical practice, as composer, trumpet player and theorist. He also leads the research cluster “Music, Thought and Technology” at the Orpheus Institute. His research is concerned with the discourses and practices of contemporary musical creativity, particularly the nature of the contemporary technologically-situated musical artefact.

Work in the space between composition and improvisation has led to continuous research in the areas of interactive systems and interfaces. The current ‘active sound space’ project uses ALife populations of wave models to create interactive works combining aspects of composition and sound art. His sequence of works ‘Presence and resonance’ explores the use of historical musical material. A monograph on the music of Luigi Nono has recently been published by Routledge, followed by an edited volume on the practice of composition, ‘Sound Work’. Jonathan is currently working on a project considering the nature of the contemporary musical object, ‘The work without content’.

As a soloist he has given premieres of works by composers including Scelsi, Berio, Harvey and Finnissy. He is also a member of the experimental chamber ensemble Apartment House. He directed the live electronic chamber ensemble Metanoia, and was awarded a Prix Ars Electronica for his development of the metatrumpet. His compositions have been broadcast throughout Europe. As an improviser he has played with musicians as diverse as Evan Parker and Amit Chaudhuri. In the field of historical performance, he is a long-standing member of both The Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century and The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra.