Canada-born, Glasgow-based composer Emily Doolittle’s music has been described as “eloquent and effective” (The WholeNote), “masterful” (Musical Toronto), and “the piece…that grabbed me by the heart” (The WholeNote). Originally from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Emily was educated at Dalhousie University, the Koninklijk Conservatorium in the Hague, Indiana University and Princeton University. From 2008-2015 she was Assistant/Associate Professor of Composition and Theory at Cornish College of the Arts. She has been at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where she is an Athenaeum Research Fellow and Lecturer in Composition.
Emily’s work is regularly performed across the UK, Canada, the US, and Europe, and she has been commissioned by such ensembles as the Vancouver Symphony, Orchestre Métropolitain (Montreal), Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra (Toronto), Symphony Nova Scotia, the Vancouver Island Symphony, Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal, Paragon, the Kapten Trio, and such soloists as sopranos Suzie LeBlanc, Janice Jackson, Patricia Green and Helen Pridmore, pianist Rachel Iwaasa, violinist Annette-Barbara Vogel, viola d’amorist Thomas Georgi and viola da gambist Karin Preslmayr.
Emily has an ongoing research and musical interest in zoomusicology, the study of music-like aspects of animal songs. She has explored this in a compositions such as Woodwings, Bowheads, and Reedbird, as well as in her doctoral dissertation at Princeton and in collaborative research with biologists and ornithologists. Recent zoomusicological publications include “Hearken to the Hermit Thrush: A Case Study in Interdisciplinary Listening,” “Zoomusicology: a Quick Guide” (co-authored with Bruno Gingras), and “O Canto do Uirapuru: Consonant intervals and patterns in the song of the musician wren” (co-authored with Henrik Brumm). She is also interested in art and environmental activism, and was recently awarded Royal Society of Edinburgh Research Workshop funding to co-organize the talk and concert series Art-Making in the Anthropocene with colleagues Sarah Hopfinger and Stuart MacRae. Other recurrent research and compositional interests include folklore, musical story-telling, music and gender, parenthood and creativity, and making music for and with children.
Emily has received a number of awards for her music, including an Opera America Discovery Grant, the Roberta Stephenson Award, a Sorel Organization Recording Grant, the Theodore Front Prize, two ASCAP Morton Gould Awards, and the Bearn’s Prize. Her work has been supported by grants and commissions from Creative Scotland, the Hope Scott Foundation, the Hinrichsen Foundation, the Canada Council, the Nova Scotia Arts Council, Socan, FIRST Music, the Montreal Arts Council, the Conseil des arts et Lettres du Quebec, the Artist Trust, the Eric Stokes Fund, The Culture and Animals Foundation, and ASCAP, and with funded artist residencies at MacDowell, Ucross, Blue Mountain Center, Banff, and the Center for Contemporary Art in Glasgow. Her chamber music CD all spring was released on the Composers Concordance label in 2015.
A CV can be downloaded here.
Emily Doolittle – Composer – Curriculum Vitae
Employment:
2019-present: Lecturer in Composition, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Glasgow, UK
2017-present: Athenaeum Research Fellow, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Glasgow, UK
2012-2015: Associate Professor of Music Composition, Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle, WA
2008-2012: Assistant Professor of Music Composition, Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle, WA
Education:
Princeton University (Princeton, NJ), Ph.D. in composition, 2007
Koninklijk Conservatorium (the Hague, Netherlands), Eerste Fase, 1999
Indiana University (Bloomington, IN), M.Mus. in composition, 1999
Dalhousie University (Halifax, NS), B.Mus. in composition and theory 1995
Selected Recent Commissions:
Tony Beaver and the Big Music (2021); for narrating pianist and animation; commissioned by Doug Jurs
The Wren King (2020); for SSAA; commissioned by Madrigirls (Glasgow, UK)
Gardenscape (Glasgow, 2020) (2020); for violin and recording device, or multiple violins; commissioned by CoMA for Ruta Vitkauskaite
Bowheads (2019); for piano trio; commissioned for the Kapten Trio by Enterprise Music Scotland
Palouse Songbook (2019); for flute and piano; commissioned by Sophia Tegart with funding from Washington State University New Faculty Seed Grant
Reedbird (2018); for 12 woodwinds and 7 brass; commissioned by the Vancouver Symphony
Woodwings (2018); commissioned by the Fifth Wind Quintet with funding from Canada 150 (Halifax, NS)
Conversation (2017); for soprano and 11 instruments; text by Eleonore Schoenmaier; researched with funding from the Culture and Animals Foundation; commissioned by Bede Williams for the St Andrews New Music Ensemble with funding from the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Summer Wassails (2017); for SATB choir; poetry by Forrest Pierce; written with the support of a Canada Council Grant to Professionals
Field Guide (2017); for string trio; commissioned by the Fair Trade Chamber Music Society (NYC, NY)
Three Summer Pieces (2017); commissioned by the Cherry Street Flute Duo with funding from the Mu Phi Epsilon Foundation James and Lola Faust Chamber Music Grant (Portland, OR)
Jan Tait and the Bear (2012-2016); chamber opera; developed with funding from the Canada Council, Opera America, and the Hinrichsen Foundation; for ffancytunes and Ensemble Thing (Shetland and Glasgow, UK)
migrations (2015); commissioned by the Musings Ensemble (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Sapling (2014); commissioned by the Canada Council for Calvin Dyck and Vancouver Island Symphony (BC)
7 Duos for Bird or Strings (2012); for violin and viola; commissioned by the Eric Stokes Foundation, Artist Trust GAP, and the Canada Council for Annette-Barbara Vogel (ON)
Seal Songs (2011); for narrator, children’s choir and chamber ensemble; commissioned by the Paragon Ensemble for The Paragon Ensemble and Voice Factory Youth Choir (Glasgow, UK)
Dàn nan Ròn (2011); for children’s choir, with flute and cello obligato; texts by Rody Gorman; written with the support of the Canada Council for the Paragon Ensemble and Voice Factory Youth Choir (Glasgow, UK)
A Short, Slow Life (2011); for soprano and orchestra, text by Elizabeth Bishop; commissioned for Suzie LeBlanc and Symphony Nova Scotia (Halifax, NS)
Folie à Deux (2011); for flute and harpsichord; commissioned by Cléo Palcio-Quintin and Katelyn Clark (QC)
Reeds (2010); for reed trio; commissioned by the Umbrella Ensemble for the Sound Symposium, NFLD
Sorex (2010); for piano four-hands; commissioned by the Fung-Chiu Duo (Montreal, QC)
Selected Recent Awards, Fellowships and Honours:
2020: Royal Society of Edinburgh Research Workshop Grant; RCS Make it Work Grant; ASCAP Plus Award
2019: Classical:NEXT Scottish Music Centre Delegate; ASCAP Plus Award
2018: Hope Scott Trust Award; Made in Scotland funding from Creative Scotland (with Ensemble Thing); Creative Scotland Open Project Funding; RCS Athenaeum Award; ASCAP Plus Award
2017: Funding for St Leonard’s Interdisciplinary Scholarship to co-supervise PhD student; ASCAP Plus Award
2016: Hinrichsen Foundation (2016); Roberta Stephen Award; Canada Council Grant to Professionals; OPERA America Discovery Grant; Culture and Animals Foundation Award; ASCAP Plus Award
2015: ASCAP Plus Award
2014: Canada Council Grants to Professionals; SOCAN Residency Grant; ASCAP Plus Award
2013: Sorel Organization Recording Grant; Jack Straw Artist Support Residency; Seattle CityArtists Grant; Cornish College Faculty Development Grant; ASCAP Plus Award
2012: Theodore Front Prize (IAWM) for A Short, Slow Life; ASCAP Plus Award
2011: Canada Council Grants to Professionals; Culture and Animals Foundation Awards; Eric Stokes Fund; Artist Trust GAP grant; Cornish College Faculty Development Grant; ASCAP Plus Award
Selected Composer-in-Residence/Guest Composer/Residencies
St Andrews New Music Week Artist-in-Residence (2018)
MacDowell Colony (2012, 2004)
Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Artist-in-Residence, Seewiesen, Germany (August-December 2011)
Technosonics XI, Guest Composer, University of Virginia (November 18-19, 2010)
New Frontiers: the Laramie Contemporary Music Project, Composer-in-Residence (September 20-25, 2010)
Asolo Song Festival, Guest Composer, Italy (May, 2009)
Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow (April-June, 2007)
Selected Recent Recordings:
Ruby-throated Moment and Child’s Play, Katy Clark, upcoming 2021
Music for Magpies, Leanne Zacharias, Music for Spaces, Redshift Records, upcoming 2021
Three Summer Pieces, Cherry Street Duo, flute duos by women composers, upcoming 2021
Summer Wassails, Via Nova Choir, Focused Silence Label, 2020
Sorex, reTHINK, junctQín, Redshift Records, 2020
Shattering the Glass: New Music for Viola da Gamba, Philip Serma, 2020
Palouse Songbook, on CD “Musical Ekphraisis,” Sophia Tegart and Michael Seregow, upcoming 2020
minute etudes, Jennifer King, Leaf Music, 2019
Gliese 581c, on CD “American Evolution: The Silence Between,” Kris Carlisle, 4Tay Records, 2019
Potato Wassail, Glasgow University Chapel Choir, 2019
music for magpies, Laurel Swinden, Celebrating Canadian Women #1, 2017
Sorex, on CD “Transhuman,” New Muse Piano Duo, Blue Griffin, 2017
falling still, Harriet MacKenzie and the English Symphony Orchestra, Nimbus Records, 2017
All Spring, chamber music by Emily Doolittle, Seattle Chamber Players and friends, Composers Concordance, 2015
Suppose I was a Marigold, recorded by Nicole Ge Li and Corey Hamm, Redshift Records, 2015
A Short, Slow Life, recorded by Suzie Leblanc and Symphony Nova Scotia, CD, 2013
Social sounds from whales at night recorded by Catherine Lee, Teal Creek Records, 2013
Falling Still recorded on CD of new music for oboe, Ashley Barrett, Centaur Records, 2012
Social sounds from whales at night, CD of solo voice works recorded by Helen Pridmore, CentreDiscs 2012
Gliese 581c recorded on Cosmophony, Rachel Iwaasa, 2010 and RedshiftX, 2012
Selected Recent Publications:
“‘Hearken to the hermit thrush’: a case study in interdisciplinary listening” Frontiers in Psychology doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.613510, 2020
On lockdown, wood pigeons, and grounding ourselves in the natural rhythms of creativity, https://www.macdowell.org/news/why-macdowell-now-on-lockdown-wood-pigeons-and-grounding-ourselves-in-the-natural-rhythms-of-creativity, August 14 2020
“Art-Making in a Global Pandemic,” RCS Exchange Green Room, https://www.rcs.ac.uk/blogs/the-green-room-dr-emily-doolittle/, May 24, 2020
“Why Yes, I Do Want My Music Performed,” NewMusicBox, https://nmbx.newmusicusa.org/why-yes-i-do-want-my-music-performed/, July 24, 2019
“The Long-Term Effects of Gender Discriminatory Programming,” NewMusicBox, https://nmbx.newmusicusa.org/the-long-term-effects-of-gender-discriminatory-programming/, June 2018
“Composing and Motherhood,” NewMusicBox, https://nmbx.newmusicusa.org/composing-and-motherhood/, April 2017
“Performing Creativity: Composing in the Entrepreneurial Era,” VAN Magazine, July 2016
“Quick Guide to Zoomusicology,” Current Biology, October 2015
“Music Theory is For the Birds,” in Sound in the Land, Conrad Grebel Press, 2015
“Overtone-based pitch selection in hermit thrush song: Unexpected convergence with scale construction in human music”, with B. Gingras, D. M. Endres, and W. T. Fitch, PNAS USA, November 2014
“Animal Music”, with P. Slater, Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, September 2014
“O Canto do Uirapuru: Consonant Intervals and Pattern in the Song of the Musician Wren,” with H. Brumm, Journal of Interdisciplinary Music Studies, October, 2013
“Animal Sounds or Animal Songs?,” The Journal of Music (http://journalofmusic.com), July, 2012
Selected Interviews and Publications about:
Georgia Strait, 2019: https://www.straight.com/arts/1185441/vso-new-music-festival-takes-flight-songs-natural-world
Wrong-Eared Owl, 2018: https://indd.adobe.com/view/dae1987b-13ce-41dd-8649-e0ce2746a978
BBC Outlook, 2017: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05dm9wt?ocid=socialflow_facebook
Audubon Magazine, 2014: https://www.audubon.org/magazine/january-february-2014/dr-emily-doolittle-music-birds
Orion, 2013: https://orionmagazine.org/article/test/
Music and the Skilfull Listener, 2012: Chapter 10, Indiana University Press, Denise von Glahn
Selected Recent Presentations:
University of Aberdeen, October 12, 2020
Orkney International Science Festival, September 8, 2020
Quarantide, June 2020
Ruralfest, June 2020
Spheres of Singing Conference, May 2020
RCS Exchange Talk, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0Tvu0IwCf4&feature=emb_logo, March 30, 2020
Symphony 101 (public lecture series), guest composer, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, October 20, 2019
BBC Scotland, interview with Jamie MacDougall on Classics Unwrapped, June 23, 2019
Glasgow University, ethnomusicology guest lecturer, March 11, 2019
Transmission of Song in Birds, Humans and Other Animals, Columbia University, 2019
University of British Columbia, guest composer, January 21, 2019
Eavesdropping at Oxford House Symposium, discussion leader, London, March 17-18, 2018
University of Birmingham, March14, 2018
Critical Theory for Musicology, round table panelist, University of London, January 12-13, 2018
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Exchange Talk, Glasgow, UK, October 16, 2017
Women’s Work in Music, University of Bangor, September, 2017
Bowdoin College, Music and Biology Departments, February 12-13, 2015
Glasgow University Biology Department/RSPB, December 3 and Music Department, November 4, 2014
See Further Festival (the Royal Society), London, UK, invited panelist on music and science, June 30, 2010
BBC Start the Week (with Andrew Marr), invited guest, June 28, 2010
Listening to Birds Conference, invited speaker, University of Aberdeen, UK, May 31-June 2, 2009
Selected Community Service:
Scottish Music Centre Board Member (2021-present)
Canadian New Music Network Board Member (2016-present)
Association of Canadian Women Composers Board Member (2015-2017)
Washington Composers Forum Board Member (2009-2014)
Les Artistes Pour la Paix Board Member (Quebec, 2004-2008)
