Amber Priestley

The focus of Amber’s practice is derived from the meeting points found in the act of collaboration. As both composer and sound designer, she is particularly interested in musicians who perform both music and theatre, often using open-form scores, in order to provide situations where time is not fixed.

Some recent performances include: And Yet Something Shines, Something Sings in that Silence (Bozzini Quartet, hcmf//); There, I’ve said it, I’ve put my cards on the table. (London Sinfonietta commission); Floors are Flowers, Take a Few (EXAUDI, Tectonics Festival); and Ev’ry evening, ev’ry day (LCO Soloists with Mira Benjamin, nu:nord commission).

With filmmaker David Lefeber, musicians Mira Benjamin and Beavan Flanagan, Amber has been working hard on a new film project—21,000 miles of searching—which is a new foray into the fixed-media world. It’s being partly funded by the PRS Foundation’s The Open Fund for Music Creators and is being screened at a small independent cinema in London.

Physical process of making scores by hand is central to Amber’s artistic practice, as is the visual aspect of the completed score, especially the play between notional markings and the simple but elegant staves in conjunction with the materiality of paper.