SAM TOPLEY

Dr Sam Topley is a sound artist, musician and educator based in North Wales. She works with textile crafts to create electronic musical instruments, interactive artwork and large-scale installations. Her work is colourful, soft and engaging, inviting new audiences to play and experience the joy of music making.

Topley shares her work internationally through workshops, exhibitions, performances and presentations. She has recently presented at the Royal College of Music (London, UK), Birmingham Symphony Hall (Birmingham, UK), Iklectik (London, UK), The Wassaic Project (New York, USA), Dubai Maker Faire (Dubai, UAE), Dome of Visions (Stockholm, SE) and Punctum (Prague, CZ).

Her work has received recognition and awards: AHRC Cultural Engagement Award 2019; BBC micro:bit Featured Artist 2019; Dubai Maker Faire Featured Project Award 2019; Best Paper and Best Workshop prizes at New Interfaces for Musical Expression 2016 and 2020; and features in Nicolas Collins' Handmade Electronic Music (3rd Edition).

Sam holds a PhD in Music, completed at the Music, Technology and Innovation - Institute for Sonic Creativity (MTI2), De Montfort University, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (Midlands3Cities Doctoral Training Partnership). She is also an experienced educator, lecturing and leading workshops internationally. Sam has worked with many schools, universities, arts and cultural organisations, libraries, makerspaces and community groups, including De Montfort University (Leicester, UK), Goldsmiths University of London (London, UK), Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (Birmingham, UK), Queen Mary University of London (London, UK), University of Manchester (Manchester, UK), Ohio University (Ohio, USA), Sense Touchbase Pears (Birmingham, UK), soundLINCS (Lincoln, UK), Music Hackspace (London, UK), Willie Mae Rock Camp (New York, USA) and the Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation for Distinguished Academic Performance (Dubai, UAE).