About

Jacob Thompson-Bell is a composer, curator, and researcher based in the United Kingdom. He creates music and multimedia work, across live performance, release, and installation formats. Jacob’s work is often inspired by issues and ideas from areas beyond music, such as food, science, and other art forms. He works in close collaboration with other artists and practitioners to play on these connections. Jacob is a founder member of multi-sensory collective Unusual ingredients, and a Senior Lecturer in Music at the University of Lincoln, U.K.

Jacob’s music has been programmed in venues including Le Delta (Namur), Tramway (Glasgow), Kings Place (London), Purcell Room (London), LSO St Luke’s (London), Iklectik (London), Howard Assembly Rooms (Leeds, and BFI Southbank (London). He has written for and worked with The Vegetable Orchestra (Vienna), London Sinfonietta, Nonclassical, London Symphony Orchestra, the Debussy Trio, the Orchestra of Opera North, Ligeti Quartet, Lontano and CoMA; and artists including Matthew Bourne, Philip Thomas, Ben Gaunt, Joely Koos and Joel Bell. Commercial collaborations include commissions for multisensory soundscapes from Pink Lady and Magnum UK, through Unusual ingredients.

Grants and awards include Arts Council England: ACE Project Grant (2019), Artists’ International Development Fund (2018) and ACE Grants for the Arts (2017, 2016); Creative Scotland Open Project Fund (2017); Sound and Music Composer-Curator (2017), Compose-Create-Engage (2017) and Embedded (2013). Jacob has held residencies hosted by Eyemouth Hippodrome, Scotland, (Creative Scotland, Leeds College of Music 2017); Somerset House, London (Sound and Music Embedded Artist in Residence, 2013-15); and LSO St Luke’s, London (LSO Soundhub 2012-14).

Jacob’s research work engages with themes around artistic practice and higher music education. In particular, he is interested in how arts practices can be applied towards social and ecological issues, including the political and ethical challenges of this, and how artists can work across disciplines to extend the reach of their work. Jacob has been published by leading journals, including Leonardo, International Journal of Food Design, and the British Journal of Music Education. He recently led a cross-sector climate hackathon at Leeds Conservatoire (U.K., June 2023), bringing together artists, activists, and scientists to investigate transdisciplinary responses to the interlocking crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and social inequity. Jacob’s recent report (December 2022) – Artistic Citizenship: Co-Creating a Flexible Definition – explores how artists can be supported to engage with wider social and environmental themes through their practice.

Jacob is a Senior Lecturer in Music at the University of Lincoln, and has developed education resources with Sound and Music (Minute of Listening), and Britten-Pears Foundation (Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra iPad app 2013). Jacob has also lectured and delivered workshops for students at conservatoires around the UK, and in Austria, The Netherlands, Iceland, Sweden and China.