Morag Galloway

Part I of Backstage series Taking text from Lady Macbeth’s soliloquy and mixing it with her own, Morag addresses her struggle with femininity and the process of menopause. Her video in this series also serves a teaser for her own research project, Dog Daze. The Backstage series: Originally my MA Independent Project, this series focuses on soliloquies written from the female perspective on how life struggles intertwine with creativity. Watch it on my YouTube channel for better viewing experience! Link in bio. Credits: Music & Production: Samuel F. Morais Original Text & Choreography: Morag Galloway Adapted Text from “Macbeth”: William Shakespeare © Samuel F. Morais & Morag Galloway

Lovely concert in London on Friday inspired and including piano music by Satie and new responses by living composer, of which I'm one! Duncan Honeybourne is incredible so this will be lush. I can't make it, sadly, but so thrilled it's happening.

PERFORMANCE CANCELLATION ANNOUNCEMENT. I'm sadly having to withdraw Dog Daze from @yorkshakes due to ill health. This is my reflection on this ... It is often the case that we create our best work in relation to our lived experiences. But sometimes these experiences can take out of us what we need to perform the work well. Such is the case with Dog Daze. At this time, I am not in the right place physically to do her justice. I need time to grow strong again, to perform her well. This will also enable a distance from the material, so I can act her well. With autoethnographic work there is sometimes a need for distance, so the rawness can be handled gently and appropriately. So, Dog Daze will premiere before too long. She just needs to rest and consolidate first. Watch this space! My thanks go to Philip and Skylar for their warmth and support. Morag Galloway, March 2026. Image Credit: Morag Galloway/Alice Wilson © Morag Galloway, 2026

Back at the start of 2025 we pitched an idea to our friend @slevin.liam , the creative director of @theauxiliaryprojectspace and @middlesbroughartweek . We wanted to make something beautiful and uplifting that celebrates sustainable energy - and specifically - the offshore wind farm in Teesside. But we really wanted it to be huge and awe inspiring like the turbines themselves. With Liam’s unwaivering support we put in an @aceagrams bid to fund an orchestral performance of a soundtrack/ soundscape and large scale video work and kept our fingers crossed. In the meantime we started filming the turbines. Battered about in all weathers we lived and breathed sustainable energy and began work on a composition in 3 movements. With a powerful interview from turbine engineer Ray Robinson 🙏🙏 we made the first ambient movement, composed a Reich-like, orchestral piece for part two and finished with an anthemic AMCA style pop song. We didn’t get the arts council money (we did learn a lot about bid writing) but miraculously Liam found a way for us to realise our grand vision. He secured the big tech we needed and @middlesbrough_townhall for a performance on the festival’s opening night. We put a small ensemble of brilliant, talented musicians (@moragcreative , @helen.madden1 and Hilaire Agnama) and Al McNihol and @simco (live sound and video tech ) together and voila! Performing The Power of 3 was one of the highlights of our professional career and we can’t thank everyone enough for coming along for the ride. Special thanks also to @racheldeakin_ for the wonderful photographs 🙏🔥 And it wasn’t a one off. Our agents @thepoolartists are in talks with venues and festivals now and with the help of yet more enlightened folk we’ll be bringing it to your town in 2026. 🙏❤️ #windpower #installationart #performance #amancalledadam #middlesbroughartweek

Being predisposed to melancholy, particularly at Christmas, is not helped by my son learning the riff from Radiohead's 'Everything in its right place'. But the joy of his choice - its apt title, the synthesis of complexity and simplicity with the chords and liminal metre combination - musically articluate this time perfectly for me. To all of us who actively hold, and acknowledge, the paradoxes and bittersweetness simultaneously, Happy Yuletide.

2025, and turning 50, has been seismic, profound, productive, brutal and ecstatic. Being at the hot end of perimenopause is like nothing else. I am so alive, it is such a transformation. And there have been moments when I've felt the bump of ageing like a child's growth-spurt. Like the wonderful @kerry.andrew , I knew it was time to update photos. These are with my camera and two beautiful B&W films. The eyes behind my Nikon are @atmathspheric and @neither.both whom I thank for seeing me clearly at this time. The foregrounding of my beloved-life-changing viola is indicative of this creative time and of what 2026 will bring. Look out for #DogDaze, people. It is coming in April ...

We are delighted to welcome our newest house composer here at UYMP: Morag Galloway (@moragcreative )! As a special welcome to Morag, this month's Scorefollower video is her 'She Moved Through the Fair' for viola and oboe. Check this out using the link in our bio. To find out more about Morag's fascinating practice, and to explore her scores, head to our website (link also in our bio). All at UYMP are extremely excited to be working with Morag!

Rainy bus journey home. Tired. First week with our gorgeous students done. The smell of wet wool from my scarf. Autumnal pleasures.

So wonderful to open @middlesbroughartweek alongside @helen.madden1 and Hilaire Adnama performing with the epic @amancalledadam_hq . It was such a joyful event with a full, attentive, enthusiastic audience. I then went on to see a bit of the live art and sample the brilliant Japanese food at @umimiddlesbrough . What a top night! More please! #viola #backingvocals #improvisation #collaboration #liveart #landscape

Very excited and honored to be performing on viola and backing vocals with awesome band @amancalledadam_hq to kick off Middlesbrough Art Week tomorrow evening. Do come along if you can. Free but ticketed via Eventbrite. In the Town Hall at 5.30pm. What a treat! #improvisation #violaandBVs #performance

I've not posted for a while and have a lot of wonderful stuff to share from this excellent past year (I work in academic years/new year reset is Autumn for me). I'm starting here, with a very recent clothes share from my 16th wedding anniversary on Friday. I wore some great baggy jeans bought this year alongside a charity find: the perfect Boden black silk shirt. So much of my regular wardrobe is charity swag. New belt from the most adorable independent leather shop in Marborough and my newly stretched Grace Sandals from @conker_shoes , who I was able to see in person this summer for the first time since 2010. What a joy! Buying well and making it last certainly rewards by the time you're 30+ years in ... Finally my wedding jewellery by @tarascammell Thanks to @atmathspheric for everything, as always. xXxXx

INTRODUCING THE RESEARCHERS: DR MORAG GALLOWAY @moragcreative @ysj_musicandmt Dr Morag Galloway is a Senior Lecturer in Music and Musical Theatre at York St John University, UK. She is a composer, performer, and director specialising in collaborative contemporary music theatre and her music is published by the University of York Music Press. Morag’s research explores collaborative and embodied processes, where close relationships are formed with co-creators and diverse communities, resulting in therapeutic creative experiences. Currently she is engaging with autoethnographic creative practice research for live performance and academic publication exploring the interrelationship of autobiography, psychotherapy, and narrative medicine using both the body and viola as medium, material and voice. She is also conducting research into the Witch in Musical Theatre. Morag is our first of two Keynote Speakers for our swiftly approaching Interdisciplinary Witches Conference: Witches in Culture, History, and Society. Her keynote will be from 10-10.30 am on Friday 20th June, and we look forward to seeing as many people there as possible!