John Kefala-Kerr
John Kefala-Kerr (he/him) is a Senior Lecturer in Music at the University of Sunderland. He is British-Greek composer and sound artist, prize-winning graduate of the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and the University of Sussex.
John Kefala-Kerr is a composer, sound artist and writer. His work has been presented at festivals and venues in the UK, Europe, Japan and USA.
He is a past recipient of the Arts Council Dio Award, Ralph Vaughan Williams Trust Contemporary Music Prize, Volos International Composition Prize, RTS Music Award Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival Composer’s Prize, Arts Council Encore Award and Journal Culture Award.
His output includes instrumental, orchestral, vocal, digital, multimedia and text-based works. These are often conceived in close proximity to everyday places, situations and circumstances. John Kefala-Kerr’s cycle of four multimedia operas (Beyond Belief) was commissioned in the wake of the Cumbrian foot and mouth crisis, and his multimedia opera (Steamsong) was created and performed during the run-up to the Scottish Independence Referendum. He has created new work in collaboration with dance and theatre practitioners, migrants and refugees, schoolchildren, marine scientists and high security prisoners.