This is the fifth in a series of articles relating to my Embedded residency at the British Music Collection supported by Sound and Music and Unlimited Impact.

As part of my residency at the British Music Collection I researched graphic, open and experimental scores for piano or any solo instrument. The following five pieces are all contained within the British Music Collection.

I selected four scores which I found either interesting or challenging to interpret. In addition, I created a new visual score of my own. We filmed and recorded my performances at Leeds College of Music and I briefly explain my approach to each piece before I perform it.

I am hearing impaired; I wear hearing aids and lipread. I lost my hearing through contracting the encephalitis virus [inflammation of the brain] when I was a child. My hearing loss primarily effects my ability to decipher high frequency sound. In addition, I have hyperacusis which is an increased sensitivity to certain frequencies and a ‘collapsed tolerance’ to typical environmental sound for which I frequently need to wear ear plugs to prevent ear pain and resulting headaches. I have been creating work directly influenced by my experience of deafness since 2007

Read the other articles and interviews in Ailís's series on Music and Diability

Stephen Montague : ‘Midnight Moon’

Stephen Montague was born Syracuse, New York, 1943 and studied at Florida State and Ohio State Universities followed by two years in Warsaw, Poland as a Fulbright Scholar (1972-74). Since 1974 he has been based in London where he works as a freelance composer, pianist, and conductor but tours world-wide. Montague's works appear on CDs from NMC Records (UK), Signum (UK), ASV Records (UK), Continuum (New Zealand), Centaur (US), Point Records (US), Starkland (US) and others. He lives in London.

http://stephenmontague.com/