Helen Ottaway

Helen Ottaway is a composer and sound artist. Her music is inspired by particular places, buildings and the natural world. It involves chance, found sound, walking and frequently has a connection with water or bells. She has composed bell pieces for a trilogy of performance installations inspired by the sunken city of Dunwich and its drowned bells (Cherry Red Heat, RING and Still RInging). In 1999/2000 she was commissioned to write the music for Salisbury Cathedral’s Night Watch Service seeing in the new millennium. In 2012 with her company Artmusic, she created Ring RIng Bell, a sonic survey of bells along the A11 in London and in 2015 she incorporated a tower bell in her orchestral choral work ‘A Field in May’ commissioned by Wadhurst Culture. Recent commissions include Levantina for Palestinian – Jordanian pianist Iyad Sughayer and White Storks String Octet for Shipley Festival in Sussex.  White Storks was recently broadcast on BBC Radio 3.

This entry was written in October 2023.