Biographies for the People With Instruments event,
Sat 1 st December 07.

Phil Morton, Martin Milner

Phil Morton has 30 years experience in the nature and practice of free improvisation. Pauline Oliveros, Maggie Nicols, Phil Minton, Steve Beresford, Simon H. Fell, Carlos Zingaro are a few important artists he has worked closely with. Since 1997 involvement in Frakture organisation has brought him into contact with hundreds of artists involved in all areas of the creative arts informing his own practice. In 1998 the work of Murray R Schaffer and the concept of acoustic ecology came to Phil’s attention and broadened his interest beyond the boundaries of music and into sound. The act of listening itself now became a key feature of his work. Phil has made presentations at two conferences; designed and led listening-projects; and as a musician he has worked nationally and internationally.

Musician, composer and educator Martin Milner started playing with instruments at the age of five. He first stepped into music work with people while still in his teens, combining teaching the guitar with workshops, band projects and jam sessions. This evolved into workshops exploring music-making as part of personal and social development, both at a community level and in more spiritual ways too. In 1996 he qualified as a music teacher and worked for two years in a large high school. In 1998 he became Education Director at Manchester music venue Band on the Wall. In this role he organised five community music conferences, ran projects in collaboration with the Halle Orchestra’s education department, and helped to create Greater Manchester’s Youth Music Action Zone GMMAZ. From 2003-5 he was a Teaching Fellow at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts on the Community Arts degree. In 2004 he was Music Director and Composer for The Lowry’s major re-staging of the classic Salford novel ‘Love on the Dole’. Between 2005-6 he was Programme Manager of the Cheshire Youth Music Partnership Project Amplifier. In 2006-7 he ran the Exodus Refugee Artist Training Programme for Community Arts Northwest and directed the music for the Wallasey Community Play ‘Island of Strangers’ (produced by the Aspire Education Trust). Everyday Music is his alter ego.