Joe Townsend

Background

About Joe Townsend

I lead collaborative projects at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. I believe in unlocking and releasing the creative potential that is inherent in every human being. With years of experience as a composer, a violinist and a teacher and leader in the arts I am now running CoLab; part performance festival, part intensive study. In its third year CoLab has seen over people take part in 160 different projects from: Afrobeats Orchestra, a Motown orchestra, Dirty Electronics, song-writing and Byrd meets Cage (that’s William meets John) and a landmark performance of Terretektorh by Xennakis. I believe in enhancing the craft of young artists through collaborative imagination and risk-taking and daring people to reimagine the classical canon through explorations in improvisation and the wealth of music from many world cultures and communities. I do this through developing student teams and fostering an active student ownership. My role as creative producer involves: academic leadership, artistic curatorial direction, forging creative partnerships across the HE sector, counselling and having an obsessive eye for detail and management systems. As an independent artist I have worked as a composer and leader in many projects for Opera companies and orchestras and have written a trilogy of works for Opera North that about folk music and identity. I have released 2 albums and have composed and performed in 20 plays at the spend National Theatre and Shakespeare’s Globe. I am becoming more interested in research into collaborative practice and am interested in flow, social constructivism, Foucault on power systems (in education) and the bits of Deluze that I can actually understand.