Caterina McEvoy is Birnam Arts' New Artist in Residence

Caterina McEvoy is a composer, sound artist, musician and sound designer working between Yorkshire and her native Scotland. Her practice explores listening, place and immersive storytelling through sound, combining environmental field recordings, electronic textures and acoustic instrumentation.

Working across sound, performance and visual art contexts, she collaborates with filmmakers, writers, dancers and visual artists to develop interdisciplinary projects responding to landscape, narrative and material.

Her sound installations and electroacoustic works have been exhibited internationally, including at THE ROOM Contemporary Art Space and venues in Venice, including Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi and the Misericordia Archives. Alongside her compositional work, she is an active performer, touring collaborative dance and theatre productions performing flamenco guitar and percussion, with appearances at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and venues across the UK. Her performance practice also extends to ensemble-led band projects, spanning live cinema and immersive audiovisual work presented at independent cinemas and touring venues, alongside ongoing work with a Liverpool-based collective, performing hybrid sets for laptop and sampler, blending composed and improvised material in collaboration with a dancer and visual artist. She has also performed live on BBC Radio Leeds as part of earlier band work.

Currently working as sound designer on the theatre production Becoming Simone, a brand-new comedy by writer Liz Garland, she creates the sonic environment for the play, weaving voices recorded during community workshops into the performance’s evolving soundscape.

Her work has been supported through the Sound and Music COVID-19 Composer Award (Francis Chagrin Award scheme). In 2021, she undertook mentorship with Scottish composer and classical guitarist Simon Thacker through TRACS (Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland), shaping her approach to cross-cultural composition and contemporary flamenco practice.  In 2024, she was selected for the Creative Access Thrive programme, a competitive professional development scheme for composers and sound designers, undertaking industry mentorship with Teodora Masi (Harrison Parrott), supported by composer Lorne Balfe.

Her work has been supported by Arts Council England’s Developing Your Creative Practice award, enabling further exploration of environmental field recording and ambisonic sound.

 Artist Statement

My work explores how sound can shape our understanding of place, memory and shared experience. As a composer and sound artist, I create immersive sonic environments using environmental field recordings, electronic textures and live instrumental performance. By weaving together acoustic and electronic sound worlds, I aim to reveal the subtle sonic textures of landscapes and invite audiences into deeper forms of listening.

Collaboration sits at the centre of my practice. I regularly work with writers, filmmakers, dancers and visual artists to develop sound-based responses to environment, narrative and material. Field recording plays an important role in this process, allowing voices, landscapes and quiet sonic details to become part of the musical fabric.

For this project at Birnam Arts, I am collaborating with ceramic artist Susie Johnston to create new work responding to the River Tay and its surrounding landscape. Through the interplay of sound, clay and natural materials, the project explores the textures, rhythms and ecological presence of the river, reflecting on how environments are experienced, remembered and shared through both sonic and visual forms.

You can help our research by responding on our website; WHAT DOES THE RIVER MEAN TO YOU?