Joel’s research interests revolve around new music theatre and contemporary opera, with particular reference to narrative, space and intertextuality in the postoperatic works of Louis Andriessen. His focus is often on interdisciplinarity and musical composition that incorporates film, dance and other media. Please visit his Research Profile on the Oxford University Faculty of Music website for more information on his thesis, research and teaching.

His most recent work is a kind of polyinterpretable monodrama that explores melancholia, politics, artistic expression and meaning through the layering of multimedia, sound and physical motion. Grim’s Ditch formed part of the DANSOX ‘Motion & Meaning‘ residency at the JdP Music Building, St Hilda’s College, Oxford on 3-6 July 2018. It was performed on Friday 6 July by Ensemble Klang and features the Austrian vocalist Michaela Riener, whose recent solo engagements include works by Steve Reich, Michael Gordon (with dance company EmioGreco|PC), Louis Andriessen (La Passione, TAO) and Hanns Eisler (with the Asko|Schönberg Ensemble). Find out more about the piece here or watch the full performance via JdP Livestream.

Recent Papers and Publications

• “Writing About Contemporary Composers: Memory & Irony in The Apollonian Clockwork” in Researching and Writing on Contemporary Art and Artists, eds. Christopher Wiley & Ian Pace (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020)
• “How to look good naked: undeifying contemporary composers and exposing their true identities”, Writing About Contemporary Artists: Challenges, Practices and Complexities, University of Surrey (October 2017)
• “My music in focus: images, oppositions and meaning through a wide-angled lens”, Graduate Research Seminar, St Hilda’s College, University of Oxford (March 2017)