Dr David Bird BMus, MMus, PhD

Teaching at the Swansea College of Art UWTSD Music Technology course

Current Teaching:

• Composing and Arranging
• Live and Studio Recording
• Sound Design
• Major Project Stage
• Creative Venture
• Contextual Practices
• Spatial Audio

Champion of Enterprise

I am an active Producer, Composer and Sound Engineer working with Film, Contemporary Dance, Circus, Theatre, and Radio. I have experience in working on large-scale installations which includes a forty-loudspeaker underground performance of John Cage’s ‘Roaratorio: An Irish Circus on Finnegans Wake’ at the Marble Arch Caves in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland.

Recent work has been shown at the Australian Computer Music Conference, the International Computer Music Conference, the Belfast Film Festival, Short Films Corner of Festival De Cannes, Henley Film Festival, Portsmouth International Film Festival, Massachusetts Independent Film Festival, Guam International Film Festival, Bounce Disability Arts Festival, RTÉ Lyric FM, BBC Radio 3, Belfast’s Baby Day, Centro Mexicano para la Música y las Artes Sonoras, the International Samuel Beckett Festival and the Lughnasa International Friel Festival.

• Audio Engineering Society (AES), Associate Member
• Sonic Arts in Wales (SAW), Founding Member

Specialisms and research interests are centred around composition, computer-based music production, sound design, studio-based recording techniques and technologies, location recording, multi-channel diffusion and spatialisation techniques, sound engineering, object-orientated programming, digital signal processing and performance practice.

Previously involved with the setup and management of the Northern Ireland Hospice Sound Gardens.  The project was designed to contribute to create a calm, yet uplifting atmosphere, engage patients and visitors through changing sound environments and create sensory garden spaces through soundscapes. 

Performance and Publications:

In The Shadow of Gullion, Tí Chilainn, The Duncarin 2019

Forgive Me Not, Belfast Film Festival (2019)

Dam, Belfast Film Festival (2017), Dingle International Film Festival (2017), London Independent Film Festival (2017), Still Voices Short Film Festival (2017), Wexford Film Festival (2017), Indie Cork Film Festival (2017), Richard Harris International Film Festival (2017), Cannes Film Festival (Short Film Corner, 2017)

Mother Milk and Cookies, Vault Film Festival (2017), Capital Irish Film Festival (2017), Richard Harris International Film Festival (2016), Rainbow Visions Film Festival (2016), Waterford Film Festival (2016), Portsmouth International Film Festival (2016), Los Angeles Independent Film Festival Awards (2016), Festival De Cannes (Short Film Corner, 2016), Reeling: Chicago LGBTQ+ International Film Festival (2016)

Dawn Disco Soundscape, Ring of Gullion, Lughnasa International Friel Festival 2015

Good Boy, Hollywood Film Festival 2015, Henley Film Festival 2015, Cannes Film Festival (Short Film Corner) 2015, Jameson’s Film Launch 2015 

Cross Community Engagement Programme, Crumlin Gaol (Jail), Institute for Collaborative Research, 2015

International Radio Advert, Editing and Production, Queen’s University Belfast, 2015

Dawn Disco, Brian Friel Festival, August 2015

Display, Documentary of PLAY, 2015

Boarders Project, Christian Brothers School, Kids in Control, 2015

Images of Irish History, Christian Brothers’ School, Community Relations, Equality and Diversity in Education, Kids in Control, 2015

Shadow Dancing with My Spirit, Blue Chevy, 2014

Roratorio, An Irish Circus on Finnegans Wake, John Cage, Samuel Beckett Festival, 2014

Good Heavens Electronica, Samuel Becket Festival 2014

Come and Play Squash, Belfast Festival, 2014

Tempest in a Teacup, Eisteddfod, Sonic Arts in Wales, 2013

Brass in Botanic Gardens, Soundwalk, Belfast Soundwalks, 2013,

Empire Drive, Belfast Sound Map, 2013

PLAY, Belfast Culture Night, 2013


Vivified, Sonorities Contemporary Music Festival, 2011


The Soundscape of Bangor Harbor, Belfast Imagined, Five Points: A Journal in Literature & Art, 2011

Thoroughfares, Centro para la Musica y las Artes Sonoras, 2011


Tryst, The Conference of Interdisciplinary Musicology 2010, Paris, 


Tidal Streams, International Computer Music Conference 2010, Huddersfield University

Tidal Streams, Australian Computer Music Conference, Perth, 2010


Tryst, Ars Electronica, 2010

Tempest in a Teacup, Esta Casa Esta Sonada, 2009


Tryst, Conference on Interdisciplinary Musicology, Paris, 2009


PLAY, Outside IDSA, Belfast, 2009


Environmental Noise, Sonorities Contemporary Music Festival, 2009

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), A Portfolio of Original Compositions. May 2014
Sonic Arts Research Centre, Queen’s University Belfast

Master of Music (MMus). September 2008
Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama

Bachelor of Music (BMus). July 2006
Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama