Bill Campbell
Contemporary Music
Born in Belfast 1961, studied music at the University of Ulster Jordanstown gaining B.A and Master of philosophy degrees.
Won SPNM regional award 1990 and the Cornelius Cardew composition prize 1992 for his string quartet ‘ The snow leopard ‘ Studied with Sir Peter Maxwell Davies 1993 - 94.
He has composed music for soloists, ensembles and orchestras performed throughout the U.K, Ireland , Europe and beyond with many broadcasts on BBC, RTE and Slovenian national radio. Bill was appointed first composer in residence for Cavan county council 2001-2003. His CD during this period with the contemporary music group ‘Concorde’ and poet Dermot Healey was voted CD of the month by the Contemporary music centre of Ireland.
He has composed music for film , theatre, installations and story books as well as working as a professional arranger for Einstein studios ( N.I. )
He has received commissions from Cavan county council, Concorde, St Magnus festival. the Arts council of Northern Ireland, the BBC , The Ulster Orchestra, The Ulster Youth Orchestra, Kids in Control , Music at the Brewhouse.
For the last 20 so years Bill has worked as an educator and facilitator with many organizations and is still active with ‘The Pushkin prize’. He has been the guitar player with the Brian Irvine ensemble from 1992 - present Performing around the world.
Bill is currently residing in Northern Ireland where he is associate lecturer in music at the Belfast metropolitan college.
At least three of Bill Campbell’s works reflect the Troubles, with and without words. “Around 1995,” he writes, “there was much talk about what was being termed as the peace process. There seemed to be a lot of hysteria and I couldn’t help think that the victims had been forgotten in the midst of all of this. Of course the balance eventually shifted towards victims in the course of time. At that time I was commissioned to write a Piano Trio for the Barbican Piano Trio. I decided to use this troubled thought [of the forgotten victims] as an emotional core to the piece. In the closing section I evoked some ghostly wailing in the strings (which some listeners thought were emergency sirens) over which was an elegiac chordal pattern played by the piano.”