Rod Paton , Senior Lecturer in Music
BackEmail: R.Paton@chi.ac.uk
Dr Rod Paton is a composer, horn player, community musician and writer. His many compositions include the acclaimed Ascension Jazzmass (“a memorable document of the human spirit” – Jazz Journal International) and the Music for St. Cuthman, (“this excellent music” – TLS) both of which explore the crossover between jazz and traditional forms. His most unusual commission is the Bergmusik, written for the Ulm community group Trotenwahn and performed on the side of a mountain in the Allgau to an audience of horned cows and hikers. As a horn player, he specialises in jazz and improvised music (“arguably one of Europe’s finest brass improvisers.” – Time Out) and has performed in the QEH, on BBC R3, in Germany and the Czech Republic and, most recently, in Helsinki. His new ensemble, Hornutopia plays original music which explores the fusion of African, Balkan and Jazzrock idioms. As a community musician, Rod is the founder of Lifemusic (www.lifemusic.org) which provides therapeutic day and weekend workshops for all and he is a director of Sound Sense, the UK’s leading development agency for community music. His book, Living Music, (described by one reviewer as “a goldmine”) is widely used by teachers and community musicians. Research interests extend to numerous conference papers and published articles exploring improvisation, the therapeutic functions of music and the links between music and archetypal pstchology.