JACKIE WALDUCK

Jackie Walduck is a composer and vibraphone player whose work explores the interface between composition and improvisation.  Her PhD   Role-Taking in Free Improvisation and Collaborative Composition was comp  leted in 2008 and forms the basis of a lifetime’s professional work and research.  She works, through improvisation, with classical, contemporary and jazz musicians, and collaborates with dancers and film-makers to create new work.  Her film score for The Dress was premiered at Cannes in 2007.  Recent collaborations have been with Kala Ramnath, Amjad Ali Khan and musicians from Shivanova.  She leads the New Music Ensemble Ignite.

Jackie trained at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and has been invited to lead creative workshops for many of the UK’s leading music organisations – London Sinfonietta, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, The Academy of St Martin in the Fields.  She established Ignite Ensemble with Wigmore Hall Learning, and leads their residency at the Hall working in a range of informal settings.  Her work for the British Council in Oman (2001-3) helped develop creative music learning in schools, engaging professional Omani musicians to work with children.  She teaches at the Royal Academy of Music and examines their Music in Community course.  She engages musicians of all abilities in improvisation and collaborative composition, and was a Lead Composer on Sound and Music’s Listen Imagine Compose research project. Beyond schools based work, she has special interests in working with homeless adults, and young people with Autistic Spectrum Disorders.