Dr Emily Doolittle
Dr Emily Doolittle is a composer and researcher with an ongoing interest in the relationship between human music and animal songs, which she explores through music, writing, and in interdisciplinary collaborations with scientists. Other research interests include environmental activism through the arts, interdisciplinarity, music and gender, musical storytelling, and folklore. Originally from Canada, Doolittle has been an Athenaeum Research Fellow and Lecturer in Composition at RCS since 2017.
Composer and Athenaeum Research Fellow Dr Emily Doolittle’s music has been described as “eloquent and effective” (The WholeNote), “masterful” (Musical Toronto), and “the piece that grabbed me by the heart” (The WholeNote).
Recent activities include the premiere of Reedbird by the Vancouver Symphony, performances of her chamber opera Jan Tait and the Bear by Ensemble Thing at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe as part of the Made in Scotland Showcase, the commission and premiere of Woodwings by the Fifth Wind Quintet in Halifax, Nova Scotia, as part of their Forecasting the Canadian Wind project, and the release of her CD all spring, performed by the Seattle Chamber Players and friends, on the Composers Concordance label.
She is also active in interdisciplinary research on the relationship between animal songs and human music, and has co-authored scientific papers on the songs of the hermit thrush and the musician wren.
Doolittle was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and educated at Dalhousie University, Indiana University, the Koniklijk Conservatorium in the Hague (where she studied with Louis Andriessen on a Fulbright Fellowship), and Princeton University (PhD 2007). Prior to moving to Glasgow in 2015, she was an Associate Professor of Music at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle.