Clare Lesser
Program Head, Music; Lecturer of Music
Affiliation: NYU Abu Dhabi
Research Areas: Music; Performance Studies; Deconstruction; Experimental Music; Vocal Studies
Clare Lesser is a musicologist and performer, specializing in the interface between contemporary and experimental music and the philosophy of Jacques Derrida. Her doctoral studies (University of York, UK) focused on Derridean approaches to indeterminate music, and her publications and post-doctoral researches have continued this thread. She is active as a performer, having given more than 75 world premieres, and is a regular collaborator with living composers, including Michael Finnissy and Hans-Joachim Hespos. She has also worked with Karlheinz Stockhausen.
Current projects include chapters on dark ambient music by The Caretaker, the concept of the no-where of the no-voice in hauntological praxis, and domain heterogeneity in John Cage's number pieces. She also writes on sound studies and performance practice. She will be recording two new albums of experimental vocal music in 2022 with Metier/Divine Art.