Nathan promoted to Associate Professor at Royal Holloway University of London
Dr Nathan James Dearden has been promoted to the position of Associate Professor in Music Composition, effective from 1 August 2026. He continues on a Teaching and Research pathway, based in the Department of Music, Drama, and Media Arts at Royal Holloway, University of London.
His teaching practice focuses on curriculum design, assessment innovation, and creating high quality learning environments for undergraduate and postgraduate students. He convenes and teaches across a range of modules, including Creative Composition Techniques and Practical and Creative Orchestration, the latter of which he redesigned to incorporate practice led learning strategies and professional partnerships.
The wider university community
Beyond the curriculum, Nathan directs several student facing initiatives. These include the New Music Collective and New Voices Consort, through which he curates and conducts ensembles specialising in contemporary repertoire. He also founded and serve as Artistic Director of the Picture Gallery Composer-in-Residence Programme, a professional development residency offering student composers workshops, tutorials, and public premieres. He organises the annual New Sounds Festival, a cross genre platform for contemporary creative practices, and runs the Concert Management and Artist Personnel Programme, which provides industry training in arts administration.
Within the University, Nathan serves as Web Champion and Social Media Champion for his department and as a member of the University’s Social Media Champion Steering Committee. He is also a member of the Steering Committee for the Centre of AudioVisual Research. He holds a Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy and has served as an independent evaluator for several national music organisations.
As Associate Professor, Nathan will continue to develop his research outputs, expand doctoral supervision, and pursue larger scale research grants. He also plans to take on further leadership responsibilities in areas including outreach, employability, and external partnerships, contributing to the department’s strategic priorities and student experience.
About music at Royal Holloway
The Department of Music is one of the largest in the UK, offering a very broad and diverse range of modules, all taught by expert scholars. They are ranked among the top Music departments in the UK for our teaching (placed 2nd in the Good University Guide 2024, and 6th in the Complete University Guide, 2022–23) and our research (ranked 1st in the UK for research including Music in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework). Following the release of the QS World University Rankings 2026, Royal Holloway, University of London has been ranked 37th globally for Music, placing it among the world’s leading institutions for the subject – including both universities and conservatoires.
