Henry McPherson (b.1995) is a composer, improviser, artist and researcher from Herefordshire (UK). He works with sound, movement, text, and image to explore human relationships with the natural and more-than-human world. Henry is interested in moss music and microclimates, dialogues with trees, sonic collage, illustrated notation, and moving with instruments. He makes works for concert and stage, sound art, installation and exhibition, as well as audiovisual media and interdisciplinary performance. Henry's developing approach to ‘ecological improvisation’ aims to cultivate inclusive listening and interspecies empathy in and through performance.
A versatile performer, Henry works actively in experimental music and free improvisation as a pianist, vocalist, and DIY instrumentalist. He is a founding member of the UK-US-French experimental collective The Noisebringers, is the co-editor of the online arts project The MASS.
Henry's research focuses on improvisation within social, community, wellbeing, and environmentally oriented initiatives (across music, dance, and theatre). He is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Manchester's Creative Manchester research platform, and is a visiting lecturer in sonic improvisation at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland He previously lectured part-time in music at the University of Huddersfield.
He holds a PhD (2023) in contemporary music and contemporary dance from the University of Huddersfield Centre for Research in New Music and Research Centre for Performance Practice, where he was supported by a collaborative studentship in association with hcmf//. He also holds an MA (2018) and BMus (2017; hons, 1st) in Composition from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
"McPherson’s score is not merely music but a soundscape, with sung dialogue being often echoed by whispers appearing to come from the trees. The music is very 21st-century, with an ever-present undercurrent of menace and violence. It packs a theatrical punch. "
Edinburgh Music Review of Maud (2023), Scottish Opera Young Company
"the music [...] convincingly rides that disarming line between familiar and skewed. McPherson’s writing is confident, vivid and rich in atmosphere."
Kate Molleson on Ūhte (2016), BBC SSO / Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
Henry's work has been performed/shared/installed internationally at events including hcmf// (Huddersfield), EDME Festival (Eugene, OR), PLUG festival (Glasgow), GIOFest (Glasgow,), FLUID Festival (Birmingham), 21st Century Guitar Conference (Muncie, IN), New Music Room (Berlin/Kuala Lumpur), Glasgow Experimental Music Series, Dag in der Branding (NL), The New Together (NGallery, GR); in broadcast on BBC Radio 3 (Late Junction, Freeness), BBC iPlayer, Radio Dordogne (FR), Cartopodes (CH), Radiophrenia (Glasgow), Transmission Radio (Birmingham), The Sampler Mixtape @ Resonance.fm (London), in sound installation at the Fruitmarket Gallery (Edinburgh), Despina Gallery (Rio de Janiero), Fringe Arts Bath (UK), Galérie Analix Forever (Geneva, CH), and in digital installations at NY20+ Gallery (Chengdu, China), "Apropos of Aesthetics" Virtual Reality Exhibition, (2021), the Gathering Zine (RAM, London Design Museum), and the MASS (UK).
As an improviser, he has performed recently alongside artists such as Maggie Nicols, Steve Beresford, Ansuman Biswas, Pascal Marzan, Beibei Wang, Ed Shipsey, the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra with Alexander Hawkins and the Noisebringers, Jerry Wiggens, David Birchall, Roland Sutherland, Odie Ji Ghast, BRUTALUST Duo, Raymond MacDonald, Saadet Türköz, Dejana Seculić, Linda Jankowska, Jessica Argo, Weston Olencki, the Noisy Women, Charlotte Keefe, Stanford Cheung, PA Tremblay, Christophe Schweizer, Xina Hawkins, the Genetic Choir, and with dance artists Kirstie Simson, Michael Schumacher, David Zambrano, Skye Reynolds, and Sky Su.
He has recently been artist-in-residence at Galérie Analix Forever (Geneva, CH, 2024/2021), Manasamitra (2021, UK), NGallery (2021, GR, with the Noisebringers) The Fruitmarket Gallery (2019, UK) with Despina Gallery (2018, BR), the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (2018, CA), and FLUID Festival (2017, UK, with Savage Parade)
Grants, Awards and Honours
Stadt Wien and AustroMechana Creative Funds (with Florijan Lörnitzo, Vienna, AT), 2022 – 2023
Creative Scotland Four National International Fund, IMMERSIONS (UK, NL), 2021 – 2022
Goethe Institute Virtual Partner Residency Fund (with The Noisebringers, Geneva, CH), 2020 – 2021
University of Huddersfield Collaborative PhD Studentship in Music and Dance in Association with Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, 2019 – 2023
New Music Scotland Scottish Awards for New Music (Nominee, “Collaboration in New Music”), 2019
Help Musicians Transmission Fund, 2018
Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity Creative Gesture Programme Scholarship (Banff, CA), 2018
Psappha Ensemble Composing for Guzheng Bursary, 2018
Harriet Cohen Memorial Music Trust Harriet Cohen Memorial Music Award, 2018
Royal College of Music Patron’s Prize for Composition, 2017
New Music Scotland Scottish Awards for New Music (Nominee, “Best Recorded New Work”), 2017
Scottish Opera Opera Sparks Commission Prize, 2017
BBC Scottish Symphony Club Composition Prize, 2016
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Sibelius Essay Prize, 2016; Agnes Millar Award for Harmony and Counterpoint, 2015; Dinah Wolfe Memorial Prize for Composition, 2013 – 14
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Institutional Scholarship (Bachelors), 2013 – 2017; (Masters), 2017 – 2018
