Julia Usher is an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 musician, project animateur and composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

, and is known for musical theater. Besides composing, she also works as a music therapist.

Biography

Julia Usher began music studies at York University

York University

York University is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, Ontario's second-largest graduate school, and Canada's leading interdisciplinary university....

 and Cambridge

Cambridge

The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...

, and studied under Robert Sherlaw Johnson

Robert Sherlaw Johnson

Robert Sherlaw Johnson , was a British composer, pianist and music scholar. Sherlaw Johnson was one of that group of post-war British musicians whose work reflected wider European interests in new ideas, techniques and aesthetics...

. She graduated with a Master of Arts degree and afterward lived and worked in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

.

In 1980 Usher set up the composer-publishing firm Primavera with Welsh

Welsh people

The Welsh people are an ethnic group and nation associated with Wales and the Welsh language.John Davies argues that the origin of the "Welsh nation" can be traced to the late 4th and early 5th centuries, following the Roman departure from Britain, although Brythonic Celtic languages seem to have...

 composer Enid Luff

Enid Luff

Enid Luff is a Welsh musician, music educator and composer.-Biography: Luff was born in Ebbw Vale, Wales, and trained as a pianist. She was educated at the University of Wales and Cambridge and graduated with a Master of Arts degree. She took time out from her career for a fimily, and then studied...

. Usher was a founding member of Women in Music in 1987, and she has worked with ensembles including Sounds Positive, the New London Wind Ensemble, the Nash Ensemble, E2K, Ivor Bolton and Inter Artes. In the 1980s, Usher collaborated in a series of cross-arts projects with the sound sculptor and painter Derek Shiel

Derek Shiel

Derek Shiel is a Dublin-born, London-based painter, sculptor, writer, and film-maker.-Education:Shiel was educated at Fettes College, Edinburgh and the Edinburgh College of Art, where he won the Andrew Grant Scholarship for two years, completed a Diploma in Art, and was awarded a post-graduate...

.

In 1999 Usher moved to Colchester

Colchester

Colchester is an historic town and the largest settlement within the borough of Colchester in Essex, England.At the time of the census in 2001, it had a population of 104,390. However, the population is rapidly increasing, and has been named as one of Britain's fastest growing towns. As the...

 and since 2001 has concentrated on developing works within community arts projects in North Essex

Essex

Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...

. Usher has worked as Composer in Residence with the Colchester Youth Chamber Orchestra. As part of the Lullaby Project in Colchester she recorded, transcribed, and translated songs (with the help of the contributors) to provide English versions of traditional folk songs from different cultures. Her compositions have won awards including the Wangford Festival Prize and a British Clavichord Society prize. Recordings of her work have been issued on CD/DVD, and she has conducted music therapy sessions for Nordoff-Robbins.

Works

A review in the London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 Evening Standard

Evening Standard

The Evening Standard, now styled the London Evening Standard, is a free local daily newspaper, published Monday–Friday in tabloid format in London. It is the dominant regional evening paper for London and the surrounding area, with coverage of national and international news and City of London...

described Usher's contribution to the Shiel/Usher collaboration:

"The second breakthrough came when a composer, Julia Usher, discovered she could notate the timbre and pitch of these strange objects and so compose music for them. This led to a series of collaborations, notably A Celebration of Blake's Vision at St James's Church, Piccadilly, in 1987, and Soundpaint performances where Usher plays while Shiel paints; he recently splashed out in colour for eight hours in front of a live audience."

Selected works by Julia Usher include:

• 1980 A Reed in the Wind (Solo Oboe) Wangford Festival Prize
• 1986 The Orford Merman (Music Theatre)
• 1989 Marak (Piano Solo) 4 short abstract pieces
• 1993 Sacred Conversations (mixed ensemble)
• 1996 Genetic Code, orchestral piece
• 2001 Before Light Ends (Piano Solo)
• 2002 Lost Icons Wind quintet
• 2002 Magnificat, commissioned by Women in Music for the Millennium
• 2004 Clavicle (Clavichord) Prize from British Clavichord Society
• 2005 Periodic Table lll for cl, ob, va, pf
• 2005 Unruly Sun ( vn, vcl, harpsichord) commissioned by Semley Festival, Dorset
• 2007 Malkin, Theatre Piece (chamber ensemble)

Other:

• Unfinished Business
• Constellations (1980) flute solo suite
• SoundPaint (1995–98) live improvisation performance piece
• Vocalism
• When I Saw the Learned Astronomer
• Moths and Moonlight
• The Lullaby Project
• A World of Song

Discography

• Sacred Physic: Music by Julia Usher (2004) - Audio CD by Julia Usher, Janet Simpson, Peter Lawson, and Lesley-Jane Rogers
• Touching the Wall: Performance with synchronised graphic imagery of Usher's Clavicle by Andrea Gregori, DVD, 2007.
• Selected Oboe Exam Recordings (2006) ABRSM