I compose experimental/avant garde modern classical (solo and chamber) and electro-acoustic music.
I also play in various rock/blues and jazz outfits as a bassist and keyboardist, most notably the Rude Mechanicals. Go to RUDE MECHANICALS . We have performed all over the U.K and have released 2 albums, several singles and E.P’s on both RIM Records and Ex Gratia labels. We have received radio play nationally, on BBC6 Music as well as on various local and independent radio stations such as Resonance FM, London. We have also been played on WFMU in America.
As a composer and performer, Guy began learning the piano at the age of 7. Working his way through the ABRSM grades, Guy started to become interested in notation and composing and at 19 he went to Anglia Ruskin University to start a degree in music.
He has also studied piano under Jillian Skerry GRSM, LRAM, ARCM Vienna Akademie. He won competitions for his performance of Debussy’s La Cathedrale Engloutie and has performed as a pianist and bass guitarist in classical, experimental and jazz/blues ensembles and orchestras.
He specialises in Composition and Music Technology and focuses his study on 20th Century and 21st Century music and its compositional techniques.
He has written on the music of Earle Brown and the role of notation in the performance and creation of music. This led on to an active role in the creation and performance of experimental and improvised music. He featured on two of Simon Fell’s albums ‘Compilation III’ and ‘Compilation IV’ as a perfomer. He set up and ran a monthly series of concerts featuring students and the performance of new contemporary music.
He graduated with a 2:1 BA Hons in Music in 1998.
Once he graduated he retained an interest and enthusiasm for composition and technology, working firstly with the Sibelius notation package and then moving predominantly onto sequencer programs such as Cubase, Logic and Reason. He composed and produced his own compositions using a variety of software packages.
He then subsequently started to compose music for competitions, such as the annual call for pieces by the SPNM and was shortlisted in 1998 for a piece written for Tuba and Piano called ‘The Stars Shoot From Under’.
As Guy was an active member of LEAPS (Live Experimental Arts Performance Society) based in Cambridge, he was able to have many of his works performed as well as perform other new works by experimental composers.
List of Works: performed / commissioned by LEAPS and Kettles Yard New Music from 2000-2006:
Mr. Bub and Mr. Clive a short film by Jo Roberts and Helen Neal with live prepared-piano accompaniment by Guy Avern – Cambridge Drama Centre – (2000)
S.C.U.M – w/ Barnaby Harding 2001-2004 – performed in various venues across Cambridge including Mumford Theatre (2002)
P.O.E – Graphic score for any one instrument and any number of performers – Mumford Theatre (2002)
4 Haiku – solo violin – Mumford Theatre (2002)
Toy Piano Suite – pieces for toy piano, a selection of which were work shopped and part performed by Isabel Ettenauer (2002)
Vix – solo piano performed at Kettles Yard (2003)
Mechanical Edison – piece for piano, record players and CD. Performed at Kettles Yard (2004)
Nymph – c1997 – solo flute performed Kettles Yard (2005)
Lugobug – c1998 – Graphic score for one percussion instrument and multiple pitched instruments. Performed Kettles Yard (2005)
Globular Clusters – solo piano performed Kettles Yard (2005)
Nothing Makes Brown – c2006 w/Kate Page – for oboe, piano and sampler performed Kettles Yard (2006)
Sky Gardens – c2006 w/Kate Page – for voice, bass guitar and tape – performed Battersea, London (2006)
For a further list of compositions that (mostly) remain unperformed, please visit the page modern classical.
Since January 2007, he was commissioned to write the music for an 11 part sci-fi animation series called ‘Loner’.
He has been teaching since 2002 and is currently working as a piano teacher in East London. He obtained his PGCE (PCET) from Anglia Ruskin University in 2005 with research into ‘Dyslexia and Music Notation In Post-Compulsory Education’.
In 2013 he graduated with Merit after 2 years studying part time for a MMus in Composition under the tutelage of Roger Redgate at Goldsmiths College, London University. He had several pieces of his own work performed both within Goldsmiths ‘Deptford Town Hall’ and externally in venues such as ‘The Others’ in Stoke Newington. His work has also been recorded by the internationally renowned pianist Kate Ryder; who specialises in Toy Pianos and Prepared Pianos. The release of this recording is due imminently.
He is currently composing a series of piano pieces.