Electroacoustic Music Composer and Sound Designer │ Interdisciplinary Practice-Led Soundscape Researcher
BEAST FeAST 2025 / Live Loudspeaker Concert (100+ Speakers) / University of Birmingham
Live diffusion Rehearsals for Mashine, 2019, preparing to present and perform live during BEAST FeAST 2025 at the University of Birmingham.
My field of research is electroacoustic music and sound studies, with a focus on how we listen to, interpret, and analyse everyday sound. I approach sound not as an abstract object but as something deeply connected to identity, culture, and lived experience. Much of my current work examines how social construct and positionality shape listening practices and compositional decisions, particularly giving attention to feminist and decolonial perspectives. At its core, my research and work seeks to broaden how electroacoustic music is studied and valued, not just as a technical manipulation of sound but as reflecting who we are, where we come from and how we experience the world, and further, the ways in which music can be used to express this.
PhD Research Project 2018 – 2025
I curate electroacoustic works that dissect soundscape expectations through feminist theory. In my practice-as-research PhD (2018 – 2025), I developed a portfolio of 7 compositions that explored experiences and expectations of Nairobi bus soundscapes through a sexual harassment lens (pre-COVID-19). Click the link for more details on the completed research project: Portfolio of Electroacoustic Music Compositions on Auditory Experiences of Nairobi Bus Soundscapes and Sexual Harassment (2018-2025).
Recent Compositions
Access my recent compositions above on Soundcloud (created and developed at the University of Kent during my PhD using ProTools + Reaper in a multi-channel configuration).
Recent Performances
Live Diffusion and Performance of Mashine (2023), BEAST FEast 2025, University of Birmingham; 100+ loudspeaker system, multi-channel diffusion
Live Diffusion and Performance of In-Situ (2023) at the Composing With Systems 2025, University of Sheffield; 32+ loudspeaker system, multi-channel diffusion
Live Diffusion and performance of Mashine, (2023) at the Sound/Image Festival (2023), University of Greenwich
Short Talk on creative processes and practice-led research that has a feminist element at the Sharing Feminist Research and Practice Conference (2020)
rediscoveries xi (2019)
The Sound of Memory Symposium: Sound-track/Sound-scape (2017)
Noisefloor (2017)
Rewards and Achievements
Associate Lecturer (Music Composition; Sound recording, design, composition; Studio Practices (stereo and multi-channel); Audio Technology; Events and Business) |2019 – 2022
Vice Chancellor’s Research Scholarship and Graduate Teaching Assistant Scholarship |University of Kent |2018 – 2025
Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy |2019
Protools 110 Certified |2019
Protools 101 Certified |2019
CONTACT: esther.w.kiburi@gmail.com