Dr Bushra El-Turk - Director
Bushra is a composer and educator who has worked in the zeitgeist of cross-cultural music making, composing for the ground breaking Atlas Ensemble in 2011 through to her own genre-defying Ensemble Zar. Born in London, she has written over 60 works for the concert hall, the stage, film, TV and live art performance. Her work is often defined by the integration of musics and musicians from different cultural traditions, and the compulsion to highlight and challenge socio-cultural issues. Her works blur written and improvisational elements, forbearing the influence of her Lebanese roots all the while leaning towards the theatrical, creating works that are '...ironic...', '...arresting...' and of 'limitless imagination'.
She currently teaches at Royal College of Music Junior Department but has also enjoyed mentoring on young composer schemes including Tŷ Cerdd(Wales), National Concert Hall Ireland Creative Lab Programme and NonClassical Associate Composers Scheme (London)
In 2010, she co-founded and ran Chelsea Music Academy, a centre for Middle-Eastern and Western Music in London, she curated and coordinated inter-cultural workshops that reached all pockets of the London cosmopolitan community for children, teens and adults. They partnered with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Leighton House Museum, the Kensington Palace Youth Programme, Fête de la Musique Exhibition Road Music Day, Arab-British Centre (ABC) and the Council for British-Arab Understanding (CAABU) to hold workshops in introducing the music of the Middle East and exploring where this rich music stands in contemporary multi-cultural contexts.
In 2017, she completed an AHRC funded PhD in Musical Composition at the University of Birmingham under the supervision of Michael Zev Gordon where she explored the integration of Middle-Eastern and Western art music.
Her research areas include contemporary composition, cross-arts and cross cultural collaborations and the integration of composition and improvisation. She has spoken and presented her music at festivals, universities and conservatoire conferences - namely Estoril Music Festival (Portugal), Cardiff, Bristol and Birmingham Universities and at the Royal College of Music and Guildhall School Music and Drama - speaking on composition to improvisation spectrum, notation and the integration of Eastern and Western art music and the spectrum within. In June 2021, she was keynote speaker in composition of Trans-traditional Istanbul Conference.