‘My music could be described as talismanic, where the creative ideas are embedded in the compositional process at a fundimental level. These things serve as a sort of ‘point de répère’ throughout the work which are treated in a deferential yet fetishistic way. Characterised by polemical internal musical debate, self-contradictory behaviour, the simultaneous presentation of ‘truth’ with 'deceit', a continuous unification of opposites. . . . behind everything I do compositionally is an interest in the gesture and physicality of the music itself. Not in the romantic or conventional sense, but in the sense that music will always stimulate a physical response in the listener, and that this 'physicality' can be manipulated and explored.’

Jeroen Speak received undergraduate training in New Zealand. With the aid of the William Georgetti and Herbert Sutcliffe scholarships he was able to complete a masters degree at Victoria University, where he graduated in 1993. In 1994 he was the Composer in Residence at the Nelson School of Music before moving to Britain where he completed a D Phil at Sussex University under Michael Finnissy.

Speak has been recently featured at; the Huddersfield Festival (UK), ISCM World Music Days, the Gaudeamus, and the Asian Composers League Festivals, the Alias Festival (Stockholm), and many other European music festivals.

In 2004 Speak was awarded a Fellowship by the British Council to work in Taiwan where he lectured, and organised workshops and performances of British music, this was the basis for an ongoing collaboration with the Taiwan-based ‘Forum Music’, a collaboration involving both educational and cultural elements which will take on new momentum next year with the involvement of Ensemble Bash (the UK-based percussion ensemble).

In 2005 Speak was offered a further fellowship to work and research in Shanghai (China). His current compositional interests include new approaches to contemporary notation, instrumentation, and tonality. His research in China revolved around modern and classical aspects Chinese culture and aesthetics, including ancient Chinese music notation systems, aiming towards the creation of a body of new work. To that end, In 2006 he was commissioned by the ISCM ensemble in residence ‘Ensemble Antipodes’ to write an octet Silk Dialogue V which was premiered at the ISCM World Music Days Stuttgart (2006), in 2007 he was commissioned by Richard Haynes and Elision (Australia) for a new work Silk Dialogue VI to be premiered 2009 (TBA). In 2008 he was commissioned by Odaline De La Martinez to write a piano trio Lingua e Realidade for the UK-based group Lontano, which was premiered in April 2008 in the Purcell Room.

‘Speak's ingenious piece (Epiesodos) [gave]... an intriguing acoustic insight into the nature of consciousness and thought and its representation’

Ronald McCoy,Ménage: Pushing the Envelope.