Donald Bousted - Quarter Tone Repertoire

Donald Bousted constantly re-invented himself. Firstly he was a classical guitarist, then he devoted himself to being a composer- increasingly, but not exclusively, of microtonal music. He was very interested in other media, and he became a media artist himself, making films, installations, and electronic works. During the last few 5 years of his life he dedicated a lot of his time to the classical ukulele: he recorded many pieces onto his Ukulele Channel on YouTube, commissioning new works, releasing CDs and digital albums, and of course playing concerts.

When he was researching his PhD, there was very little accessible information about microtonal music. He did a lot to change this. He founded Microtonal Projects, ran four UKMicroFests in London (having visited LA MicroFest), nine Wild dog media events in London and then founded the EUROMicroFest with Stephen Altoft in Germany. With Stephen he wrote a book, ‘The Microtonal Trumpet’, and they travelled to South Korea, toured the UK and around Europe presenting the project of 25 years.

He liked humour in music, in his own music too: he said that was one reason why Haydn was a favourite composer of his.

His passing in December of 2021 has left a huge hole. He never wasted time, he just got on with living, composing, making his media pieces, perfecting his Ukulele craft. We will try to continue what he started, always with him in our hearts and mind, remembering his vision, energy and determination, and ‘just getting on with it’.

– donaldbousted.com