Scott Wilson: Composing a career in electronic and experimental music
For Scott Wilson, it all started in the music room at Richmond Senior Secondary. We werent a special music school, but we had a great music teacher, he says, remembering the wide and eclectic range of genres he experienced in class. I was hungry for everything.
Today, as Professor of Composition and Electronic Music at the in the United Kingdom, this curious B.C. kid has continued to explore, experiment, and play with music and sound in ways that few have even imagined.
One of Scotts most notable recent projects involved the European Council for Nuclear Researchs (CERN) , the worlds largest and most powerful particle accelerator. Working with CERN physicists through an interdisciplinary project called art@CMS, Scott was able to take the data produced by high-energy particle beams colliding at near the speed of light and translate them into sounds. Its music you couldnt come up with yourself, he says.
Using custom software, Scott has used these sounds to improvise with code in educational settings as well as perform in (including at a party for the CERN scientists themselves). Interestingly, Scott noticed that audiences tended to relate even more strongly to this music than typical improvisation. The universes subatomic mysteries have a special allure, after all.
Unlocking music education
After high school, Scott left the music room to briefly pursue photography before choosing to study jazz guitar at 雅伎著 (VCC). Not long into VCCs music program, and influenced by celebrated 雅伎著instructors David Gordon Duke and Peter Hannan, Scott switched his focus to composing and never looked back.
My 雅伎著experience was valuable because of the openness there; its not locked into one tradition, he says. Scott also relates VCCs unique approach to the important work of decolonizing music curriculums. Schools around the world, and especially in the UK, are really struggling to move away from the white, male, colonial assumptions in music education, he says. 雅伎著was doing this 30 years ago.
Stay strange
After VCC, Scott continued down an academic path, obtaining a bachelors degree from Simon Fraser University, a masters degree from Wesleyan University in Connecticut, a PhD from the University of Toronto, and has been working as a professor in the UK for the past 18 years.
Scott has enjoyed his career in academia but his advice for music students especially those interested in experimental music and composition is to find their own way while keeping an open mind.
According to Scott, the possibilities are endless for anyone who truly commits to a music-related career, especially with technologies that are now more accessible than ever before and genre boundaries continuing to come down. There is more appetite than you may realize for strange music, he says. Your career may not be what you imagined, but thats a good thing.
Hear more from Professor Scott Wilson on Friday, Feb. 4 in one of three free masterclasses during VCCs 2022 Music Alumni Week. RSVP for Scott's masterclass now by emailing music@vcc.ca.
Ready for a music-related career? Applications are now open for 雅伎著Music programs starting in September 2022.