Research Seminar Series: Dr Sam Gillies, Monash University
Research Seminar Series
Ernest Berk Music
Presented by Dr Sam Gillies, Monash University
Students, staff and the general public are welcome to attend this FREE event. (Registration not required).
Please join us for the lunch time concert featuring a world premiere by Dr Gillies at the MANE concert, starting at 1pm. We will flow into the Research Seminar at 2 - 2.50pm.
Abstract
Ernest Berk was one of the most prolific composers of early electronic music in England, creating over 220 pieces across a career spanning three decades. After fleeing Germany in the 1930s, Berk became one of the most visionary practitioners in a wave of pioneering English electronic music composers that included Delia Derbyshire, Daphne Oram, and Tristram Cary. However, Berk never achieved lasting recognition and his legacy as a composer, performer, and pedagogue has now all but slipped from the public consciousness. This seminar will discuss Berk and his music ahead of a book publication on SUNY Press.
Bio
Sam Gillies is a composer, improviser, and sound artist with an interest in the function of noise as both a musical and communicative code in music and art. He has a musicological specialisation in the early electronic music of the UK, and is currently a Co-Investigator on the AHRC-funded project ‘Ernest Berk: An Expressionist Outsider’ and a Principal Investigator on the AHRC Curiosity project ‘Tape Archive Analysis Toolkit (TAAT): new toolsets for analysing large tape archives.’ He has published numerous book chapters and papers on the subjects of early British electronic music history, and contemporary practices in audiovisual art.
Event Details
- Date:
- 20 August 2026 at 2:00 pm – 2:50 pm
- Venue:
- Music Auditorium, Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music and Performance, 55 Scenic Boulevard
- Campus:
- Clayton
- Open to:
- Students, staff and the general public are welcome to attend this FREE event.
- Cost:
- Free. (Registration not required).
Description
Research Seminar Series
Ernest Berk Music
Presented by Dr Sam Gillies, Monash University
Students, staff and the general public are welcome to attend this FREE event. (Registration not required).
Please join us for the lunch time concert featuring a world premiere by Dr Gillies at the MANE concert, starting at 1pm. We will flow into the Research Seminar at 2 - 2.50pm.
Abstract
Ernest Berk was one of the most prolific composers of early electronic music in England, creating over 220 pieces across a career spanning three decades. After fleeing Germany in the 1930s, Berk became one of the most visionary practitioners in a wave of pioneering English electronic music composers that included Delia Derbyshire, Daphne Oram, and Tristram Cary. However, Berk never achieved lasting recognition and his legacy as a composer, performer, and pedagogue has now all but slipped from the public consciousness. This seminar will discuss Berk and his music ahead of a book publication on SUNY Press.
Bio
Sam Gillies is a composer, improviser, and sound artist with an interest in the function of noise as both a musical and communicative code in music and art. He has a musicological specialisation in the early electronic music of the UK, and is currently a Co-Investigator on the AHRC-funded project ‘Ernest Berk: An Expressionist Outsider’ and a Principal Investigator on the AHRC Curiosity project ‘Tape Archive Analysis Toolkit (TAAT): new toolsets for analysing large tape archives.’ He has published numerous book chapters and papers on the subjects of early British electronic music history, and contemporary practices in audiovisual art.