Odilon Marcenaro

Job Role: Senior Lecturer in Composition and Music Technology

Department: Composition and Creative Music Technology

Honours: Graduate of the Utrecht Conservatoire, Academy of Art, Media and Technology, The Netherlands (1996) Qualifications in electronic composition/sound design, sound recording and teaching music technology. Fellow of Advance HE/Higher Education Academy

View their work:

Biography

Odilon Marcenaro was born in Amsterdam. He began his musical studies on the recorder and bassoon, before embarking on a degree course in Music Technology at the Utrecht Conservatoire’s Academy of Art, Media and Technology.

After undertaking work experience at the electronic music studios of the University of Amsterdam and the Sweelinck Conservatoire, he took up a graduate post at Bretton Hall College of the University of Leeds, where he worked as a researcher into Music Technology for visually impaired users. During this time, he was also active as composer and sound diffusion specialist.

In 1996, Odilon was appointed Head of Music at the North Shropshire College in Oswestry, teaching A level Music and Music Technology. In 1998, he became Studio Manager for the languages section of BBC World Service Radio at Bush House in London.

Expertise

Odilon joined the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in 2001 as a lecturer in Creative Music Technology. His specialisms include sound recording, radio production, programming in Max/MSP, electronics hacking and all aspects of sound synthesis, particularly modular synthesizers. He has a particularly strong interest in debunking the more esoteric aspects of sound technology.

Odilon has been involved in teaching and training for more than thirty years. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Notable Achievements

Odilon has been involved in organising the Atmospheres contemporary music festival since 2014 and during Covid-19 launched and ran Atmospheres Radio, which allowed for a virtual festival to be held online. He also created an online platform for Cardiff’s most popular jazz night AmserJazzTime. He organises RWCMD’s SoundBar concert series, which is a regular exploratory platform for new musical work.

Odilon’s research encompasses electronic composition as well as solutions to challenges presented by the increasing reliance of performance on technology. His adaptations for Boulez’s Dialogue de l’ombre double, which specifies use of equipment that is now obsolete, have allowed for a version that can be staged anywhere. For National Theatre Wales, he created a device that would translate the heartbeat of an actor into the tempo information for the soundtrack of the production. These and other innovations lie at the heart of Odilon’s practice.