Professor Frank Lyons

Overview

Frank Lyons is Professor of Music and Associate Dean of Research and Impact in Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at Ulster University. He has developed an international profile as a composer and researcher with over 150 performances and exhibitions of his works having been given in China, Japan, Australia, South Africa, the US, Europe, the UK and Ireland and broadcast on BBC, RTE, NPR and ABCFM by some of the world’s leading soloists and ensembles.

In 2010 he was awarded the Japanese Agency of Cultural Affairs Media Art Prize with media artist Masaki Fujihata for their interactive installation piece Simultaneous Echoes which has been exhibited in Canada, Germany, Japan and Poland. His intermedia piece The River Still Sings, co-commissioned by the City of London Festival and Derry~Londonderry City of Culture 2013, was premiered by the Fidelio Trio in June 2013. The River Still Sings features a newly commissioned poem by Seamus Deane, narration by James Nesbitt and video by Paul Moore. His groundbreaking piece, NonZeroSum for inclusive ensemble was performed across Europe in 2017 to widespread acclaim and was showcased in a multi-site networked performance in March 2019.

He has developed an international network of research collaborations in the field of creative technologies and disability under the ‘Inclusive Creativity’ banner; this work was rated as ‘world-leading’ in the most recent UK research assessment exercise REF2014.

Frank recently co-led the successful Future Screens NI bid to AHRC Creative Industries Clusters programme which secured funding of £13million to support the development of creative industries in Northern Ireland.

Frank was awarded an MBE for services to higher education and music in the New Year’s Honours list 2020. He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Co-Director of the Creative Industries Institute and Co-Director (Partnerships) of Future Screens NI.

Education

1999PhD (Composition)  Ulster University
1996LTCL (Guitar Pedagogy) Trinity College London
1995BMus(Hons) Ulster University

Research Fields

Composition, Musicology, Music and Community