Derek Nisbet

Member

Composer/Lyricist:	Composer
Genre:	Media
Email:	mail@dereknisbet.info
Website:	www.dereknisbet.info

Biography

Derek Nisbet specialises in creating music for unusual situations. He has composed music for a tight-rope walk on millennium eve (Tightrope Prelude), for a theatre show in an underground car-park (Wanderlust), for a telephone answering machine (Telephone Exchange) and for aerial dance in Trafalgar Square (Touch Don’t Touch).

He is best known as composer and film-maker with acclaimed company of artists Talking Birds, working alongside writer/performer Nick Walker and designer/visual artist Janet Vaughan, and for his works for film with live music, which include 2 letters and Recent Past, both with orchestra London Musici.

Derek’s work has been performed at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, the Lilian Bayliss Theatre, Sadler’s Wells, Coventry Cathedral and the Malmö Palladium, Sweden, and his work has been heard on BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction, BBC Radio 4’s afternoon play, and on television in the UK and Ireland.

He has collaborated with choreographer Lisa Torun on dance, music and film projects in the UK and Sweden, and co-directed with her the Eighth Composer’s and Choreographer’s Exchange for the South Bank Centre. Derek composed and performs with Jake Oldershaw An Intimate History, a music-theatre show for one audience member at a time, which has been staged at Birmingham Rep Theatre and Battersea Arts Centre. He also performs with the cross-artform improvisation group Fence Crossing.

See-Saw
“The string music is composed by the Britt Derek Nisbet and it has an ardent and concentrated tone, sometimes broken by sparkling pizzicato sequences. A still tenderness prevail, a dignity and held back power which impresses greatly.” (Skånska Dagbladet)

Mysteries 2003
“a wonderfully arresting and edgy fairground sound of concertinas and fiddles” (Irish Times)

An Intimate History
“a delightful nugget of theatrical waywardness and invention” (Lyn Gardner, The Guardian). More info: http://www.jakeoldershaw.com/

Wanderlust
“a bona fide example of a multi-media live art event that delivers” (Live Art Magazine)

Score/parts available:

Triptych (Lisa Torun Dance Co 2002)
Soundtrack for dance premiered at Lilian Bayliss Theatre, Sadler’s Wells, London.

Ocean Always There (Talking Birds 2002)
Music for radio elegy by poet Ian McMillan.

See-saw (Lisa Torun Dance Co/Derek Nisbet, UK version 2001)
A music-dance cycle, performed in the round by 3 dancers and 3 musicians (String Trio - violin, viola, cello).

CD available (as heard on BfBC Radion 3's Late Junction). Also available: score for Suite from See-saw for string trio.

Cool Water Murder (BBC Radio 4, 2001; Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, 1999)
Score for theatre/radio drama.

“Derek Nisbet’s movie-style score adds a real dynamic to the proceedings” (Birmingham Post)

Tightrope Prelude (commissioned by Coventry & Warwickshire Promotions for the organ of Coventry Cathedral, 1999)
Performed live on New Year's Eve 1999 as a prelude to teh tightrope walk between two of Coventry's Spires by French dare-devil Ramon Kelvink. Played by Rupert Jeffcoat, Directory of Music, Coventry Cathedral. Subsequently performed by Kevin Bowyer at the Warwick & Leamington Festival in the UK and Spain.

"Stiring music specially composed for Kelvink gave the whole event the feel of a Wagnerian opera" Coventry Evening Telegraph

Score Available:

Recent Past (Talking Birds/London Musici, 1998)
Composer/director of piano trio with multiple screen video. Premiered at Adrian Boult Hall, Birmingham, by London Musici Trio.

2 letters (London Musici/Post Office/Talking Birds, 1997)
Composer/director of film with live orchestra, performed by London Musici conducted by Mark Stephenson, at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London as part of `Image-Music-Text'. Nominated for the award of Region's Best Screen Composer at the 16th Brimingham International Film & TV Festival.

“Nisbet has done what would be unthinkable in Hollywood - he’s cut the film to the needs of his music, not the music to fit the film...fascinating” (Peter Kingston, The Guardian).

Important Works		Performances
Catch (Blue Eyed Soul Dance Company 2005) Soundtrack for aerial dance performance, directed by Jess Curtis. See-saw (Sweden premiere - Lisa Torun Dance Co 2005) Touch Don’t Touch (Blue Eyed Soul Dance Company 2005) Soundtrack for aerial dance performance, performed at Greenwich & Docklands Festival, Trafalgar Square and Sadler’s Wells, directed by Jess Curtis. Midland Journey 2 (Media Archive Central England/Warwick Arts Centre 2005) Composed and performed live electrified violin accompaniment to early films from the BFI archive. Glass Slipper (Emote/Blue Eyed Soul Dance 2005) Score for dance film as part of Capture West Midlands. An Intimate History (Jake Oldershaw/Craig Stephens, 2004-5) Composer/pianist for 5 short musical dramas performed at Birmingham Rep Theatre (Fierce Festival) and Battersea Arts Centre (Octoberfest and Burst Festival) An Audience with Mr Ritzy (Talking Birds/Warwick Arts Centre, 2003) Composer of Vinyl LP for offbeat touring variety performance. Mysteries 2003 (Belgrade Theatre, Coventry/Macnas Theatre, Galway, 2003) Score for new large scale production of the Mystery Plays, performed at Galway Arts Festival and in the ruins of Coventry Cathedral. Telephone Exchange (Talking Birds, 2003) Sound work for interactive telephone line. Wanderlust (Talking Birds/CREATE, 2002) Music/sound design/video for installation in underground car park in Scarborough Solid Blue - a show trial (Talking Birds 2002)Music/sound design for site-specific theatre performance in 14th century monastery. Vitesse Quartet (Warwick Arts Society 2002) Concert piece for Cor Anglais, Viola, Bass Clarinet and Harp. Commissioned by Warwick Arts Society, performed by Okeanos, and named after the Italian designed, Coventry built Triumph Vitesse motor car.		None added