John Croft

John Croft (b. 1971) studied philosophy and music at the Victoria University of Wellington, and composition and music cognition at the University of Sheffield. He has a PhD from the University of Manchester, where he studied with John Casken, and is a Laureate of the Jurgenson Foundation of Moscow. He is currently Head of Music at Brunel University, West London. His music draws on the spectral properties of sounds as the basis for harmonic and temporal structures, and recent work focusses on the use of live electronics in ways that extend rather than obscure the bodily relationship between performer and instrument; examples include Sonata (la terra lagrimosa...una luce vermiglia) (2006), for cello and live electronics and ne l'aura che trema (2007) for alto flute and live electronics. His music has been played by many ensembles and soloists, including the BBC Philharmonic, the London Sinfonietta, the Arditti String Quartet, Ensemble Exposé, Studiya Novoi Muzyki, 175 East, Stroma, Philip Thomas, Matthew Barley, Richard Craig, and Xenia Pestova. He also teaches and writes on the philosophy of music. He is currently commencing work on an opera-monodrama for Lore Lixenberg, entitled A Fury's Curses.