Joe Bates
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    • Full List
    • Large Ensemble >
      • Muted The Night
    • Small Ensemble >
      • Ink, Colour And Gold On Paper
      • Wound Honey
      • Straight Line Through A Landscape
      • Two Animals
      • Nocturne
      • Lain Lines
      • Us Alone
      • A Noise So Loud
    • Solo >
      • Phasmid
      • Odd Coils
      • Sparrow
      • Street Through A Window
      • Two Animals
      • Flim Flam
    • Vocal >
      • Absence
      • The Hazelnut
      • Some Parts of Us
      • Now Is A Long Time
      • Cataracts
      • Ceasing
      • Hildegard
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    • The Hyasynth
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Curriculum Vitae

Skills

  • Experience composing for a large variety of groups, from chamber and solo works to orchestras, rock bands and choirs.
  • Eight years experience curating Filthy Lucre, a mixed-genre music night, performing in venues from cheap bars to Somerset House.
  • Experience selecting varied music to programme, for 12th-century chant to contemporary classical to East Asian trap.
  • Knowledge of acoustic and electronic instrumental techniques, extended techniques and the limitations of instruments.
  • Familiarity with Sibelius, Logic Pro, Mainstage, Ableton Live, and a wide range of synthesiser types.
  • I have engaged in collaborations with directors, artists, poets, librettists, DJs and choreographers.

Recent Performance, Prizes and Commissions

  • London Symphony Orchestra Panufnik Composer, 2019
  • Nonclassical Battle of the Bands Finalist, 2019
  • Romsey Abbey, October 2018 – Hildegard arrangements for voice and electronics with Sansara Choir
  • MATA Festival, New York, April 2018 – A Noise So Loud
  • Occupy The Pianos, London, April 2018 – Us Alone for two Sound Icons and solo cello
  • ​Commission and collaboration with Sansara Choir, from May 2018

Experience

Filthy Lucre Artistic Artistic Artistic Director    2011-present
  • I curate, commission, and produce works from a broad range of genres and art forms.
  • I run We Break Strings, a listings site that covers alternative contemporary music in London, giving me a good overview of work being made at the cutting edge.
  • The nights have featured 35 of my own covers of popular music, including arrangements of Tom Waits for string quartet, and pieces for singers and electronics with video.
I founded Filthy Lucre with Anthony Friend in 2011. Our nights move from concert to gig to club night. Tied together by artistic concepts, such as cultic rituals and urban sprawl, the events are not determined by genre constraints but by a cohesive artistic vision.
Since 2011, I have produced twelve events at venues including Shapes, Somerset House and the Bussey Building. They have generated a large following and been critically acclaimed by Amati Magazine amongst others.
We have built a professional orchestra and worked with soloists such as Loré Lixenberg. They have performed core contemporary works, such as Crumb’s Black Angels, alongside the unjustly neglected, including the UK premiere of Romitelli’s Lost.
I have commissioned emerging composers such as Emma-Jean Thackray and CHAINES, collaborated with a choreographer, film-maker and spoken-word artists, and produced Joe Snape’s lärmlicht for electronics and lightbulbs.
"Filthy Lucre 3 was a fascinating and daring experiment, performing some challenging 20th century music in an entirely new and different context.” Robert Hugill, Planet Hugill

King’s College London, Music MA Distinction    2014-2016
  • Specialising in music history and analysis; Subjects vary from classical repertoire, to contemporary music, to hip hop.
  • Distinction in all modules, including a 78/100 in my analysis of Szymanowski’s Third Symphony.
  • Thesis was on the application of the word ‘classical’ to contemporary music, and the implications this carries for the practice and its reception.

​Denim
Music Director    2011-2014
  • Played, arranged and composed for a popular drag band; developed a strong practical performing knowledge of pop music.

University of Cambridge, Music BA 2.i     2010-2013
  • Senior Exhibition for academic excellence and the Sir Rudolph Peters Prize for music.
  • Analytical skills including the historical and philosophical background of music and musicology.
  • Studied composition with Robin Holloway, achieving a First for my composition portfolio.
I engaged in a wide variety of musical activity and was very active as a composer. I played synthesisers of my own design in free-improvisation groups, taking part in workshops with the Britten Sinfonia and the Cambridge University New Music Ensemble and working on a number of stand-alone electronic 'tape' works.
I have been involved writing music for a number of a theatre productions. I wrote surreal cafe music for a production of Ionescu's Rhinoceros, a long and complex electronic soundscape for a production of Bergman's Seventh Seal and a mixed live and prerecorded score for Strindberg's Miss Julie.

National Youth Orchestra Principal composer
All photographs by Ilme Vysniauskaite
  • News
  • Music
    • Full List
    • Large Ensemble >
      • Muted The Night
    • Small Ensemble >
      • Ink, Colour And Gold On Paper
      • Wound Honey
      • Straight Line Through A Landscape
      • Two Animals
      • Nocturne
      • Lain Lines
      • Us Alone
      • A Noise So Loud
    • Solo >
      • Phasmid
      • Odd Coils
      • Sparrow
      • Street Through A Window
      • Two Animals
      • Flim Flam
    • Vocal >
      • Absence
      • The Hazelnut
      • Some Parts of Us
      • Now Is A Long Time
      • Cataracts
      • Ceasing
      • Hildegard
  • Recordings
  • About
  • Teaching
  • Filthy Lucre
  • Research
    • The Hyasynth
  • Upcoming Dates