Pete Stollery is a composer and sound artist
He is fascinated by how sound and place relate to each other
image: Spud ‘n’ Duck
Pete Stollery studied composition with Jonty Harrison at the University of Birmingham and was one of the first members of BEAST in the early 1980s. Following a number of years as a school teacher in Kent, he moved to Aberdeen to work in teacher education at the former Northern College which later merged with the University of Aberdeen. From 2000, he was part of the team which re-introduced music programmes at the University of Aberdeen, including the introduction of doctoral programmes in Composition and the development of the electroacoustic music studios. He was Head of the Department of Music for many years and he retired as Professor of Composition and Electroacoustic Music in 2022.
In 1996, along with Alistair MacDonald, Robert Dow and Simon Atkinson, he established the group invisiblEARts whose aim is to perform acousmatic music throughout Scotland and to promote Scottish acousmatic music to a wider audience, both within Scotland and abroad.
In 2004 he was part of the setting up of sound, a new music incubator in NE Scotland which runs an annual festival of new music featuring composers and performers from around Europe, as well as year long activity including opportunities for composers and performers of all stages. He is also artistic director of Any Enemy, NE Scotland’s New Music Ensemble.
Pete Stollery composes music for concert hall performance, particularly acousmatic music and more recently has created work for outside the concert hall, including sound installations and internet projects. His main interest is in how humans respond to sounds in their immediate surroundings, in particular sounds that are not necessarily intended for listening purposes, as well as how an engagement with sound relates to the idea of place.
His creative work exists as electroacoustic compositions, sound installations, web-based sound art, as well as instrumental/vocal compositions.
His music is published by the Canadian label empreintes DIGITALes with further information at Électroprésence and tracks available for streaming at Electrothèque.
He spent over thirty years living and working in the northeast of Scotland and in early 2024 he moved to Skipton, North Yorkshire.
Upcoming Activity
Currently working on…
New album Aides Mémoires with Jonty Harrison
No fixed date for release but we’re both working on short form pieces (around 4-6 minutes) using field recordings we have gathered over the many years we’ve been doing this stuff! Already completed Clermont Horns, Cullykhan Water, Gruyères Bells and Azet Gate (Squeaky). Currently working on Whitehills Wood, usign sounds recorded in and around Whitehills where I live in Ne Scotland.