Paul Clift (b. 1978) is an Australian composer and currently a doctoral candidate in music composition at Columbia University. He obtained a Masters of Music at King's College, London and a Bachelor of Arts at Monash University Conservatorium. He also completed the IRCAM Cursus de composition et d'informatique musicale, culminating in the premiere of With my limbs in the dark, composed in collaboration with choreographer Alban Richard & Ensemble l'Instant Donné. In 2013, Le Détour Permet le Retour for string quartet, video & live-electronics was premiered by JACK. Current projects include a new work, Fata Morgana, for trombone quintet, commissioned by Mike Svoboda/Trombones de Bâle and a series of arrangements of Nanacarrow's Player Piano Studies for Neofonía. Paul's music often attempts to make abstract associations with a diverse variety of concepts and disciplines, such as linguistics, modernist literature & painting, cognitive phenomena, and extra-European musical traditions, in particular the Shona tradition of Zimbabwe. His compositional outlook is marked by formative studies with George Benjamin, Jean-Luc Hervé, Fred Lerdahl, Philippe Leroux, Fabien Lévy & Tristan Murail. His works have been featured in festivals such as Agora, MATA & ISCM Forum, and he has participated in festivals & master-classes including Royaumont Voix Nouvelles, Acanthes, Domaine Forget, IMPULS, June in Buffalo, MATRIX, Internationale Sommerakademie der MDW & Darmstadt Ferienkursen. In addition to composing, Paul is active as a researcher; in 2014-15 he will undertake research-oriented residencies at the Paul Sacher Foundation and IRCAM. He has also presented his work at a number of conferences, including ICMC. Paul is also currently Artistic-Director of neuverBand, a new-music chamber ensemble based in Basel. Paul's music is published online at www.babelscores.com. For more information, visit www.paulclift.net