Nicole Robson is a composer, artist, and interdisciplinary researcher working across music, sound, and human–computer interaction. Her work explores sonic experience as a relational, embodied, and physical phenomenon, asking how its qualities can inform the design of new technologies, installations, musical instruments, and compositions for stage, screen, and public spaces.
Composition commissions include works for contemporary dance (Studio Wayne McGregor, Akshay Sharma, Anjana Bala) and virtual reality film (Satore Studio, BBC, Anagram) and public artwork (NHS, Mayor of London, Museum of London). Nicole's work has been recognised at the Venice Film Festival, Sound Walk September and the International Women’s Podcast Awards. Current work includes musical composition for Moments of Grace, a permanent, 24-hour sound installation created in collaboration with On The Record, for St Thomas’s Hospital in Central London that combines oral histories of nursing with sound and music inspired by the hospital's community, heritage and location.
As a cellist and multi-instrumentalist, Nicole is an experienced performer, playing with innumerable bands including The Irrepressibles, Bat for Lashes, Olivia Chaney and Stats. She has toured in over 30 countries, performed at major festivals such as Glastonbury, Coachella, Laneway, Sziget and Pukkelpop, as well as on Later... with Jools Holland [1] [2] and for BBC Radio 1, 2, 3 and 6 Music.
Nicole is now a Research Associate in Digital Musical Instrument Design and Analysis in the Augmented Instruments Laboratory at Imperial College London. She also teaches critical research skills to music producers at the Institute of Contemporary Music. She holds a PhD in Media and Arts Technology from Queen Mary University of London, a MMus in Sonic Arts from Goldsmiths University of London and a BMus in Music from King's College London.