“[Caitlin] has two modes: minute fiddling or epic shred. nothing in the middle” – Edward Henderson, collaborator
Caitlin Rowley is a composer, artist and performer. Her work is post-disciplinary and playful, creating works for live in-person performance, video pieces and online environments. Her scores sometimes take the form of unique art objects. She is interested in blurring the boundaries between music and the visual arts and her pieces often address questions of private experience, memory, visual/auditory disconnect and aural imagination. As a performer, she is principally a noise violist and experimental vocalist, but her skills also include lipsync, characterisation and playing assorted stationery and packing materials.
Caitlin’s work has been performed or exhibited in venues including Kings Place, the Barbican, Southbank Centre, Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Morley Gallery, Brisbane Powerhouse, Blackheath Halls, the Thames Tunnel Shaft, the Royal Academy of Arts, Proud Archivist Gallery Café and 44AD Art Space, and at festivals in Australia, Denmark, Norway, Iceland and the UK. Her music has been broadcast on national radio in Australia and the UK. She is an Associate Artist at the Australian Music Centre.
Caitlin studied composition with Peter Sculthorpe at the University of Sydney for her Bachelor of Music degree with Honours, and screen composition with Jan Preston at the Australian Film Television and Radio School. After moving to the UK, she studied at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance* where her teachers and mentors included Errollyn Wallen MBE, Paul Newland, Stephen Montague, Dominic Murcott and Sam Hayden. She graduated with Distinction from Trinity Laban’s Master of Fine Arts Creative Practice (Music) course in 2014. She studied Sound Art and Field Recording at Morley College following her Masters degree, and is now working on her doctorate in interdisciplinary composition under the supervision of composer James Saunders and artist Robert Luzar at Bath Spa University.
Caitlin is also active as a researcher and writer. Her work on Erik Satie began during her undergraduate degree and continues to the present day. This is published online at Erik Satie’s Crystal Ball, which has been recommended as a research resource by Ivy League universities and the NSW Government’s HSC Online website. You can view a list of Caitlin’s publications here, and she also writes intermittently about her current research, works in progress, the creative process and the role of fear in creativity on her blog on this site. Between 2017 and 2020, she maintained a regular presence on YouTube, vlogging her creative practice as part of her doctoral research.
Caitlin works freelance as a composer, performer, producer, and higher education teacher, as well as working as Research Administrator and Events Co-ordinator for Zubin Kanga’s Cyborg Soloists research project at Royal Holloway, University of London. She is a member of the acclaimed composer-performer group Bastard Assignments, with whom she creates new experimental music and art pieces, tours and produces events. She also works collaboratively with the South-West-based artist collective Kaths Kaff. She lives just outside London.
- Explore Caitlin’s work
- Read Caitlin’s Credo on this site
- Talk to Caitlin about commissioning a new piece