Devon Bonelli

Available to hire

I am an award-winning composer, producer, DJ, and performer based in Phoenix, AZ and Manchester, UK. My music blends traditional classical elements with modern electronic techniques.

About

I am an award-winning composer, producer, DJ, and performer based in Phoenix, AZ and Manchester, UK. My music blends traditional classical elements with modern electronic techniques. I explore queer themes in my music through my work as a PhD researcher at the Royal Northern College of Music as a PRiSM (Practice and Research in Science and Music) Researcher. Well-versed in classical and electronic music, I draw on both to make work that transcends genre boundaries.


Employment and project experience

Composer and Music Advisor at Excessive Human Collective (EHC) 2022-2025 (ongoing)

Awarded funding by Arts Council England for a UK tour of “Discopia”, a dance show for small musical ensemble, in 22/23. In addition to composing, I made grant applications, organized rehearsals, provided marketing materials, and facilitated exchanges between the dancers and musicians. After this tour, I continued working at EHC as a contracted composer, providing music for three new shows in Leeds.

PhD Royal Northern College of Music 2019-2025 (ongoing)
Completing a PhD in Music Composition (graduating Dec 2025). Studying with David Horne, Sam Salem, and Simon Clarke. Research explores the underground music and nightlife scene during the AIDS epidemic and its impact on current-day aesthetics.

  • Joined November 2024

Industry experience

  • Media & Entertainment
  • Gaming
  • Telecommunications

Projects · 3

Winner of the 2023 Rosamund Prize. Piece for two singers, flute, harp, narrator, and live electronics co-written by poet and performer Spencer Mason. Explores the inner workings of queer relationships through the lens of Ancient Greek tragedy and philosophy. Reclaims the early history and aesthetics of homosexuality. Promotional video available below:

  • Composer
  • Lead Sound Engineer
  • Sound Designer
  • +2

Collaborated to create a dance piece with Larisa Trio (piano, violin, cello) and Excessive Human Collective. Three years of recurrent workshopping culminated in a tour of the piece to London, Leeds, and Bristol, funded by Arts Council England. Modular in construction, the work can be performed in any order and focuses on non-linear themes. It presents a series of tableaus abstracting depictions of natural disasters alongside humankind’s relationship technology and nature. It critiques a dualist outlook, seeing these forces instead as a combined body with moral agency. Promotional video is available below:

  • Lead Sound Engineer
  • Music Composer
  • Musician
  • +2

Opera for solo voice, electronics, and projections examining the impact of the AIDS crisis. Premiered at The White Hotel in Manchester by soprano Georgie Malcom with libretto by Spencer Mason. Using the allegory of society’s ‘fear to touch’, Queen Midas reflected on society’s creation and subsequent alienation of LGBT+ identities. Musically draws on the queer history within house and industrial genres. Promotional footage available below.

  • Composer
  • Lead Sound Engineer
  • Music Producer
  • +4

Work experience

Composer and Music Advisor · Imogen Reeve & Co.Sep 2020 – Present · 6 yrs 3 mos

Composed music for 5 dance productions with choreographer and artistic director Imogen Reeve

Education

Bachelor of Arts in Music and Philosophy · University of Nottingham2016 – 2019
Master of Music in Composition and Musicology · Royal Northern College of Music2019
Doctor of Philosophy in Music Composition · Royal Northern College of Music2021 – 2025

Certifications and awards

PhD in Music Composition2020 – 2025

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