Siôn Parkinson (b. Dundee, Scotland) is an artist, musician and author. Originally trained as a sculptor, over the past decade Siôn has experimented with the human voice, electronic and acoustic instruments to create intimate, visceral music which he performs in costume often alongside other musicians.

Recent work is inspired by his research into sound and smell (particularly ‘bad’ smells) imagined through the figure of the stinkhorn mushroom and his passion for the fungal world more broadly. As of 2024 he is an AHRC Research Fellow at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh where he leads the project ‘Fragrance in the Fungarium’. His first, non-fiction book Stinkhorn will be published in spring 2024 by Sternberg Press (London).

Siôn’s sound and moving image works have been broadcast on major national television and radio stations, including BBC Four, BBC Radio 3 and Radio 6 Music. He has received commissions and invitations to perform in galleries, theatres, music venues and festivals internationally. His music compositions have been performed by Baba Yaga, Red Note Ensemble, and tuba virtuoso Jack Adler-McKean. He has worked and performed on stage with other experimental musicians, including cellist Anton Lukoszevieze, saxophonist Raymond MacDonald, vocalist Elaine Mitchener, and avant-garde pop pioneer Bill Drummond.

He has been the recipient of several awards and grants, most recently Help Musicians UK (2023-24) and Art Fund’s Jonathan Ruffer Curatorial Travel Award (2021). He received a Jerwood Award in 2019 to explore experimental techniques in falsetto singing.

In 2022, Siôn was nominated by composer Sally Beamish to be Cove Park’s Musician in Residence. Over a period of three months, he wrote and performed a series of contemporary work songs inspired by traditional harvest ballads from Scotland, northern Europe and America. Other residencies over the years have included Hospitalfield (Arbroath, Scotland), Artquest (Amsterdam), and New Music Scotland’s Emerging Composers programme. In 2016, he was invited by Liverpool Cathedral to compose and perform a new piece for solo voice, ‘Organo Humano’, celebrating the cathedral’s pipe organ (the largest in the UK).

He has a PhD in sound from the University of Leeds where he was an Amanda Burton Scholar at the Centre for Audio Visual Experimentation (CAVE). He holds a bachelors and masters degree in sculpture from Central Saint Martins and The Slade School of Art (both London).

Siôn launched Song Work in 2021. Song Work is an audio library of workplace noise. All audio recordings contributed to the project will be acquired by National Library of Scotland Sound Archive as part of their Environmental Sounds collection.

Contact: sionparkinson@gmail.com