JUSTIN GROUNDS

Immersed in his own unique musical world since the age of 4, Justin Grounds is a violinist, composer and music producer originally from Cambridge, UK. His early years were spent studying violin, playing in bands and making recordings on a 4-track tape machine, including an early work Timeless which was premiered at the Cheltenham International Music Festival in 1998. He went on to study a degree in Music & Theology at Durham University, majoring in electroacoustic composition, while touring and recording with the live drum’n’bass collective Keiretsu, melding his classical violins with electronic beats and bass - a thread that has woven through his diverse musical output to this day.

After years spent in Vancouver, Canada and Melbourne, Australia, Grounds now lives and works in West Cork, Ireland, and is a celebrated and sought-after composer, performer and producer. As well as releasing 4 solo records and touring in Australia, Canada, Europe and the USA, he collaborated with Dublin based singer Pearse McGloughlin on a highly acclaimed cycle of electronic chamber songs called ‘Idiot Songs’, one of Irish Times’ albums of the year in 2013. He more recently produced the debut record of The Vespertine Quintet, 2 albums with singer Jessie Kennedy and Cork songwriter ADT’s records ‘Vol.1’ and ‘Vol.2’.

His works for orchestra and chamber ensemble meld his training as a baroque violinist with his love for modern electronic sound processing and display a healthy disregard of genre. Passagalia Apis for string orchestra and de-tuned baroque violin was performed by Elizabeth Wallfisch and the Cork Baroque Orchestra at the Curtis Auditorium, as well as by Maya Homburger and Barry Guy in their own duet arrangement for the East Cork Early Music Festival 2014. He has received commissions and bursaries from the Arts Council of Ireland, CREATE Ireland, Uillinn Arts Centre, Cork Orchestral Society among work for local ensembles and independent film. His large-scale oratorio The Embracing Universe was premiered to a sold-out audience at Skibbereen Arts Festival in 2019. His most recent work CumuloNimbus for orchestra and soloists, commissioned by the East Cork Early Music Festival, was premiered on early music day 2022.

Passionate that music should be a vital and central part of all society, Justin has spent many years teaching a string course for teenage violinists with the ETB, facilitating electronic music and composing workshops internationally as well as volunteering with the local youth orchestra and youth centre studio in his home town of Clonakilty. In 2014 he composed a series of scores for his Human Orchestra Project which he presented along with a specially commissioned piece as a TedX speaker. Since 2015 Grounds has been a member of the Arts for Health team in West Cork as composer-in-residence at the Clonakilty Community Hospital and presented this work at numerous national conferences. He continues to host a weekly open-air listening party entitled ‘Stop Look Listen’ every Sunday in his home town.

He lives in Clonakilty with his wife, son and a room full of string instruments.