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.…

Devon Bonelli

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.…

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. 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.

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Work Experience

Composer and Music Advisor at Imogen Reeve & Co.
September 1, 2020 - Present
Composed music for 5 dance productions with choreographer and artistic director Imogen Reeve

Education

Bachelor of Arts in Music and Philosophy at University of Nottingham
October 1, 2016 - July 31, 2019
Master of Music in Composition and Musicology at Royal Northern College of Music
October 1, 2019 - December 31, 2019
Doctor of Philosophy in Music Composition at Royal Northern College of Music
January 1, 2021 - December 31, 2025

Qualifications

PhD in Music Composition
September 1, 2020 - June 1, 2025

Industry Experience

Media & Entertainment, Gaming
    paper Apollo & Marsyas (2023)

    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:

    paper Discopia (2023)

    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:

    paper Queen Midas (2023)

    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.