Amble Skuse
07970 654288
3f2 5 Gladstone Place, Edinburgh, EH6 7LX, U.K.
amble@ambleskuse.net www.ambleskuse.net
@ambleskramble
Amble Skuse - Biog
Amble works as a composer and has a broad background in Diversity and Inclusion. Her interests lie in
the various ways in which power is created and maintained through exclusive structures. After
working at the Arts Council England on the Diversity and Inclusion team, Amble spent time working in
Central and South America. Her work there supported social enterprises engaging with issues around
race and language with the indigenous people of Guatemala and Honduras. She has also developed
innovative Gypsy and Traveller training and outreach projects in the UK. These projects aim to
support people in gaining the skills and knowledge to empower their communities to counter
negative stereotyping. Her diversity work explored relationships between the rural and the urban, the
central and the isolated, the connected and the disconnected. It focuses on identity within a cultural
framework, related to language, nationality and a sense of home.
Since 2007, Amble has refocused her work on composing and exploring the various musicological
frameworks around traditional and electro-acoustic musics. Her composition centres on the tension
between traditional acoustic performance and interactive technologies, received traditions and
contemporary technological immediacy, isolation and communication, both in terms of the realisation
of the composition and the musicological framework.
Composition
Between the remembered and the anticipated is the now.
We are weaving the remembered and anticipated together, we are weaving the now.
Flute player and composer Amble Skuse writes interactive live technology pieces which reference
Scottish Traditional Music. After studying at Dartington College of Arts (now University College
Falmouth) and Bath Spa University she began writing for traditional music performers, finding ways of
incorporating live electronics into the performance.
Amble works with Logic, MAX/MSP and Supercollider to create sculptural sounds which augment and
support the traditional music performers. She is interested in ways in which the past and the future
come together and merge to create the now. Amble works with languages, poetry and sound to
relate a sense of location, time and identity through her pieces.
The composition centres on the tension between traditional acoustic performance and interactive
technologies, received traditions and contemporary technological immediacy, isolation and
communication, both in terms of the realisation of the composition and the musicological framework.
This tension between interactive technologies and traditional musics forms the basis of her enquiry.
Can the use of technology enhance the practice and identity of traditional music communities and
performers, or does the use of these technologies undermine the processes and values of the genre?
Amble’s work has been performed internationally by ensembles such as Mr McFalls, Chamber, Red
Note Ensemble and Rarescale. She was recently chosen for a large scale community inclusion project
with Making Music and Ty Cerdd, working across the whole of Wales developing a series of
intergenerational site-specific works. She is also one of five Creative Scotland International Creative
Entrepreneurship Fellows for 2013.
Composition Performances
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Stryd Clud performed at Red Note Ensemble’s “Noisy Nights 19” Glasgow City Halls (November 2012)
by Simon Smith (Piano) and Yann Guiro (Bass Clarinet)
Butchery used by We Are Northern Lights for their documentary film Scotland. (October 2012)
How Murderous Is Our Love? performed at Red Note Ensemble’s “Noisy Nights 18” Edinburgh
(October 2012) by Robert Irvine (cello) / Sarah Burnett (bassoon) /Jackie Shave (violin)
Sligachan performed at Rarescale Summer Concert 3, London (July 2012) by Carla Rees (flutes), Rosie
Coad (soprano), Michael Oliva (electronics)
An Ìochdar an Amar Uisge performed at Rarescale Summer Concert 2, London (July 2012) by Carla
Rees (flutes), David Black (guitar), Michael Oliva (electronics)
Como Sera? performed at Red Note Ensemble’s “Noisy Nights 17” Edinburgh (May 2012) by Robert
Irvine (cello) / Andreas Borregaard (free bass accordion) /Jackie Shave (violin)
The Great Maiden of Corrodale collaboration with Angus Peter Campbell, performed at Distil
Showcase, Tollbooth Theatre, Stirling. Mr McFalls Chamber Jackie Norrie (violin) / Robert McFall
(violin) / Brian Schiele (viola) / Su-a Lee (cello) / Rick Standley (Bass) / Fiona Rutherford (Harp) /
Alistair Paterson (Piano) / Amble Skuse (Electronics). (May 2012)
Chapels with Splendid Glass Windows Performed at Mr McFall's Chamber Electronics Project 2012,
Edinburgh (February 2012) Su-a Lee (cello) / Rick Stadley (bass)) / Brian Schiele (viola) / Rosenna East
(violin)
Tre’r Ceiri Performed at Red Note Ensemble’s “Noisy Nights 16” Edinburgh (December 2011) Robert
Irvine (cello) / Simon Smith (harmonium) / Jackie Shave (violin)
Perpetuum Mobilé Theatre collaboration with playwright Sylvia Dow performed at Traverse
Theatre (November 2011) Robert Irvine (cello) / Tom Hunter (vibraphone) and Nicholas Bayley (bass)
Butchery and Dragons Electro-Acoustic compositions performed at Electrogals Festival, Portland
Oregon (October 2011)
Reluctant Fire Performed at European Piccolo Festival, Jezersko, Slovenia by Carla Rees, Christine
Beard & Matjaž Debeljak.(July 2011) Also performed at University of Nebraska at Omaha
with Christine Beard, Anna Hall Wimmer & Sara Schuhardt. (July 2011)
Chapels with Splendid Glass Windows Performed at Red Note Ensemble’s“Noisy Nights 14”
Edinburgh (June 2011) Su-a Lee (cello) / Malcolm MacFarlane (guitar) / Tony Moffat (violin) Excerpts
of this piece were broadcast along with an interview on BBC Radio Scotland’s Classic’s
Unwrapped (June 2011).
Sea Longing & Dóchas Performed as part of Mr McFalls Chamber Electronic composers
Residency (April 2011) Robert McFall (violin) Brian Schiele (viola) Su-a Lee (cello) Rick Standley (Bass)
Martin Parker & Alex Fiennes (Electronics).
Esme – prelude to a fall Performed at Red Note Ensemble’s “Noisy Nights 13” Edinburgh (February
2011) Simon Smith (harpsichord) / Eilidh Martin (baroque cello) / Francesca Thompson (recorders)
Uisgebhagh Performed at Red Note Ensemble’s “Noisy Nights 12” Edinburgh (February 2011) Robert
Irvine (cello) / Sonia Cromarty (cello) / Eilidh Martin (cello)
Garden Broadcast on Celtic Connections radio – Mark Sheridan (January 2011)
Reluctant Fire Performed at 8th Slovenian Flute Festival, Jezersko (July 2010) Matjaz Debeljak
(piccolo) / Clare Jefferies (flute) / Carla Rees (alto flute)
There be Dragons Used for Melbourne Festival theatre Performance (2007)
Butchery and Dragons Electro-Acoustic compositions performed at ‘Random Function’ Bristol (2006)
Workshops & Teaching
Current
Young Composers Course, Leader 2012, Horsecross Arts, Perth
Assistant leader & arranger Gordon Duncan Experience youth Traditional & Big Band, Perth
Flute Teacher
Previous
Sessional Leader - Folk Orchestra of Torbay & Beginners Make Music - Devon
University of Wales & Dartington College of Arts – associate lecturer – Site Specific composition
South West Participatory Network – Sustainability in Community Arts Workshop
Delivered to staff of Arts Council England – Spectrum of Participation in Arts Projects.
Co-ordinator - Arts & Islam training for Arts Council England
Boehm System Flute teaching to 10 primary age students, from beginner
Technical and Instrumental
Boehm Flute (main instrument) & Alto Flute
Front of house sound engineering
Stage Management – theatre and live music / Stage Plotting for Orchestras, Bands and Festivals
MAX / MSP, Protools, Logic, Sibelius, ABC notation
Employment History
01/11 – Current Freelance Composer
09/12 – Current Talent Hub Apprenctice, Horsecross Arts, Perth
09/12 – Current Flute teacher – Most Entertaining, Edinburgh
04/08 – 04/11 Senior Officer for Social Inclusion – Community Council of Devon
04/07 – 04/08 Arts Development Officer – Wren Music
11/06 – 01/08 Co-ordinator - South West Participatory Arts Network
09/05 – 04/07 Assistant Officer Diversity and Inclusion - Arts Council England
03/05 – 09/05 Neighbourhood Arts Administrator - Bristol City Council
07/00 – 03/05 Stage Manager & Sound Technician – Self-Employed
Contracts include –Edinburgh Festival, Glastonbury Festival, The Twits Circus UK tour.
Projects & Courses
12/13 – International Creative Entrepreneur Fellowship
12 - Adopt a Composer, Sound & Music / PRS Foundation / Making Music
12 - Jennifer Martin – Composition Mentoring
12 Collaboration with David McGuinness (piano), Alisdair Robert (voice) – Electronics & Scots Ballads
12 - Collaboration with Gaelic Singer Mischa MacPherson, Electronics and Gaelic Ballads
12 - Mr McFalls Chamber Electronics Workshop
11 - Composition Course with Gareth Churchill at Cardiff University
11 - Mr McFalls Chamber Electronics Workshop
11 - Distil Composers electronic course - Scottish Arts, Hands Up for Trad, PRS Foundation
10 - 11 HNC Traditional Music, Lewis Castle College
10 - Composing and Arranging course with Sarah Allen from Flook
10 - Rarescale Composers retreat (Bursary) - Michael Oliva from Royal College of Music
10 - Child Protection Training 2 day course - Devon County Council
04 - 06 PG Dip - Creative Music Technology - Bath Spa University College.
03 - 04 European Computer Driving License - City of Bristol College.
97 - 00 BA Hons - Arts Management with Visual Performance (Sonic Installation) - Dartington
95 - 97 Foundation Art & Access to Art - Lambeth College.
90 - 92 11 GCSE’s (grades A – C) - St Peters School, Exeter.
References
John Harris, Chief Executive, Red Note Ensemble
http://www.rednoteensemble.com
john@rednoteensemble.com
Judith Walsh, General Manager, Mr McFalls Chamber
http://www.mcfalls.co.uk/
judith@mcfalls.co.uk