Dee Isaacs

• Dee is a Senior Lecturer in Community Music at the University of Edinburgh. She studied composition with Nigel Osborne. She is passionate about the creation of music and its power to engender ‘community’. She has been commissioned by a wide range of arts organisations including Opera North, London Symphony Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Magnetic North, Scottish Ballet, LiveMusicNow, The Scottish Executive, Dumbworld, Creative Scotland and The Wellcome Trust.

She has been nominated by the British Academy of Composers (now the Ivors) for Festus, Supposer Life, Watching and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner awards. In 2012, she was awarded the Principal’s Medal for her music education and outreach work. Between 2000 – and 2005 she was the UK co-ordinator for War Child in the Caucasus, implementing a creative arts training programme for social workers and psychologists working with children suffering from trauma. Dee continues to work across cultures and within marginalised communities both near and far. She set up a long-term research project for primary-aged children using immersive art projects to improve literacy and language development in The Gambia, West Africa. Since 2016 Dee’s focus has been on working with children living in challenging circumstances as refugees. Windows on the World is the creative arts programme she now runs in collaboration with SolidarityNow/Unicef in Greece for children living in protracted displacement.

Current Research Interests

My practice-based research engages an influential meeting point of several diverse concerns including performing arts outreach, community development, creative arts therapies, and conflict resolution. It is concerned with the understanding and application of current scientific and theoretical frameworks for the investigation of musicality. The creative engagement at the core of this work results in both new art and a transformative experience for the communities involved. We know this through our recent impact reports, which show that a fully immersive ‘arts’ experience for young people is hugely beneficial to them both socially and educationally. My research is concentrated around two areas: connecting communities in the UK through musical engagement; and developing a sustainable creative arts methodology for children living in protracted displacement.

• Creative output includes orchestral, chamber, and choral composition, as well as music theatre with commissions from major arts organisations. [see list of works]
• Compositional research into the musical and social practices within traditional songs in the cultures of West Africa, the Republic of Georgia and other Eastern European traditions.
• Recent collaborations have involved the implementation of multi-disciplinary arts projects within communities, aimed at encouraging cohesion in a diverse society primarily involving children.
• The study of indigenous vocal styles in The Gambia, in particular, female singers from the Bambara, Malinke and Wassoulou people
• Investigating the impact of creative arts interventions for children living in protracted displacement (focusing on Greece) _ Windows on the World 2016 - present

Musical Composition, Music in the Community, Ethnomusicology, Community Arts Practice, Performance

• Output includes orchestral, chamber, and choral music, as well as music theatre with commissions from major arts organisations including the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Scottish Ensemble, Glasgow Tron Theatre, Perth Concert Hall and Magnetic North Theatre Company.
• Compositional research into the musical and social practices within traditional song in the cultures of West Africa, the Republic of Georgia and other Eastern European traditions.
• Recent collaborations have involved the implementation of multi-disciplinary arts projects within communities, aimed at encouraging cohesion in a diverse society.
• Current work  in progress includes:  Togetherness - a new commission for the Ulster Orchestra and Dumbworld.  March 2025
• Shoes - My name is Ali - a film by Iulian Furtuna and Dee Isaacs - July 2025
• The sky has no borders - a project devised by Dee Isaacs with refugee families based in Northern Ireland (Dumbworld and the Unboxed festival 2023
• Memories are Made of This – inspired by the Alasdair Hopwood exhibition at the Talbot Rice Gallery in March 2013 and a score for a new opera, Watching - an opera about sleeplessness in collaboration with Oxford Brookes University and the Royal Botanic Garden for performance in March 2015. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner- an opera for our time with Gerda Stevenson (writer). March 2019
• The study of indigenous vocal styles and voice production techniques of women from Mali and the Gambia, in particular, female singers from the Bambara, Malinke and Wassoulou tribes.  Currently preparing an annotated collection of traditional songs from these regions.
• Big Boat– working in The Gambia, West Africa - students from the University, teachers and pupils from Deeper Life School are involved in a 3-year research project using music as a tool for enhanced learning of literacy skills.

Administrative Roles

Responsible for project management and fundraising of all Music in the Community productions in collaboration with the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, National Museums of Scotland and other key arts organisations in Edinburgh.

Responsible for setting up and supervising/assessing student placements with national and local organisations including The City of Edinburgh Council – Education and Social Work departments, local organisations such as  Multi-Cultural Family Base, Leith, Sikh Sanjog, Rowanfield Special School, Oaklands Special School, Howden Hall centre for young offenders, Prospect Bank Special School, Saughton Prison, Royal Hospital for Sick children.

Responsible for project management and fundraising of all Music in the Community productions in collaboration with the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, National Museums of Scotland and other key arts organisations in Edinburgh.

Responsible for setting up and supervising/assessing student placements with national and local organisations including The City of Edinburgh Council – Education and Social Work departments, local organisations such as Multi-Cultural Family Base, Sikh Sanjog, Rowanfield Special School, Oaklands Special School, Howden Hall centre for young offenders, Prospect Bank Special School, Saughton Prison, Royal Hospital for Sick children.

ECA Senior Tutor 2019 - 2022