Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Music Higher Education

Convened by the Royal Musical Association and MusicHE (formerly NAMHE)

in partnership with the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (UK and Ireland), the Society for Music Analysis, the Society for Education, Music and Psychology Research (SEMPRE), LGBTQ+ Music Study Group and the British Forum for Ethnomusicology

Friday 24th January 2020

125 Conference Suite, City, University of London, London EC1V 0HB

Suggested hashtag for live tweeting #EDIMusicHigherEducation2020

Photographs will be taken at this event for use by RMA and MusicHE. Please let one of the organizers know if you do not wish to be included in such photographs.

SCHEDULE

Arrival and Registration from 9am

Welcome. 9.20am Laudan Nooshin and Helen Julia Minors

Panel 1. 9.30-10.35 Vocal Studies, Opera and Ablism Chair: Byron Dueck (Open University)

Daniel Galbreath and Richard Shrewsbury (Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Birmingham City University). ‘Opera Nation: Diversifying Vocal Study in Higher Education’

Ellan Alethia Lincoln-Hyde (SOAS). ‘Opera, Ableism and Marjorie Lawrence (1907-1979): An Historical Case Study of Increasing Accessibility in Tertiary Music Education’

Andrew Hugill (University of Leicester). ‘Aural Diversity’

Tea/coffee. 10.35-11.00am

Panel 2. 11-12.20pm Difference, ‘Race’, Sexuality, Intersectionality Chair: Victoria Armstrong (University of Surrey)

Rachel Cowgill (University of York), Thomas Hilder (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) and Danielle Sofer. ‘“Queer Academic Activism: Intersectional Perspectives on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Music Departments Today’.

Maiko Kawabata (Royal College of Music) and Shzr Ee Tan (Royal Holloway, University of London). ‘An Intersectional, Historically Aware, Minority-Led Approach to EDI in Music Education’

Genevieve Robyn Arkle (University of Surrey). ‘“I don’t see race”: A spotlight on the Voices of BAME Academics and Performers in Classical Music and Musicology’.

Eleanor Ryan (University of Cambridge). ‘Whiteness from a distance’ : How institutional whiteness revealed itself in a Caribbean Higher Music Education workplace.

Lunch. 12.20-1.15pm

Panel 3. 1.15-3.00pm Institutional Strategies Chair: Amy Blier-Carruthers (Royal Academy of Music/King’s College London)

Stephen Graham (Goldsmiths, University of London). ‘Challenges and Opportunities: Music and Inclusion at Goldsmiths’

Diana Salazar and Natasha Loges (Royal College of Music). ‘Cores and Peripheries: Towards Diversity in the Conservatoire’

Scott Caizley (King’s College London). ‘The Conservatoire Crisis’

Wiebke Thormahlen (Royal College of Music) and Jennie Henley (Royal Nrthern College of Music). Repertoire”, Methods, Objectives – what are the true barriers to diversity?

Javier Rivas Rodríguez (King’s College London). ’Beyond Diversity: Inclusive Teaching and Critical Pedagogy in SOAS and King’s College’

Tea/coffee. 3-3.30pm

Panel 4. 3.30-4.30pm Across Cultures Chair: Luis-Manuel Garcia (University of Birmingham)

Hussein Boon (University of Westminster). ‘The Ways of Making, Dissemination and Reception Have Changed, So What Should We Do About It?’

Manuella Blackburn (Keele University) and Alok Nayak (Milapfest, UK). ‘Negotiating Diversity and Prejudice: A Case Study in Successful Cross-Cultural Collaboration’

Kevin Komisaruk (University of Toronto). ‘Encouraging Diversity Through Development of Creative Identity’

5 min break

Panel 5. 4.35-5.00pm Panel Forum: taking stock and next steps. Discussion led by Helen Julia Minors (Kingston University), Tom Perchard (Goldsmiths, University of London), Fiorella Montero Diaz (Keele University)

Please send any enquiries about the conference to Christine Dysers: [email protected].

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Music Higher Education In her study of diversity and racism in institutional life, cultural theorist Sara Ahmed writes about the ‘politics of stranger making; how some … become understood as the rightful occupants of certain spaces … whilst others are treated as “space invaders”, as invading the space reserved for others’. How do we create Music Departments that don’t feel like spaces ‘reserved for others’? What should Music Departments of the 21st century look like, both in their personnel and their curricula? In terms of gender, we have come a long way in recent decades, but much remains to be done when it comes to other dimensions of difference and exclusion. What does the current state of Music HE reveals about the workings of power and privilege, about who and what becomes centred and peripherised, and why. What are the barriers to diversity?

Following the workshop, ‘Interrogating Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Music: BAME routes into and through Higher Education’, held in May 2019, we are convening a one-day event to address the questions above, to continue the discussion around EDI issues in Music HE and to identify ways of extending work in this area. Recognising that EDI is an important issue facing music education today, and that Music HE has an important role to play in shaping the broader agenda, we invite colleagues to share best practice from within their own departments. What activities, innovations, curricular changes, pedagogic approaches and recruitment events are happening which specifically address a diversity agenda, especially (but not exclusively) with regard to ethnicity and class? The aim is to develop a broad subject awareness of what is going on nationally and to provide a forum for exploring ideas and proposals for future work.

The day will include a provocation session to stimulate debate, a range of case studies, and opportunity to network. We anticipate that one of the outcomes of the day will be the opportunity to share ideas and teaching resources via MusicHE’s newly launched website.

Helen Julia Minors (MusicHE) Laudan Nooshin (RMA)

Abstracts Panel 1 Vocal Studies, Opera and Ablism

Daniel Galbreath and Richard Shrewsbury (Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Birmingham City University). ‘Opera Nation: Diversifying Vocal Study in Higher Education’

This presentation offers preliminary answers to the question: how might diverse young people be empowered to participate in HE vocal and operatic study? We will discuss findings from workshops (West Midlands, winter 2019/20), which introduce diverse young people (ages 14– 18) to the process of creating operatic performances. These workshops initiate Opera Nation, a 3- year educational scheme supported by the Royal Opera House and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Learning and Participation Department, which is directed at young people from racial, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds that are consistently underrepresented in HE musical study, and consequently in the sphere of professional opera.

After detailing the vocal and stagecraft activities of the workshops, we will elaborate on outcomes of these events. Interactive discussion groups offered data on participants’ impressions of opera before and after workshops; thoughts about continuing participation in opera; and general (including critical) feedback. Findings will be discussed along two important strands: (1) how participants’ impressions can inform the future of the project, enabling them to contribute actively to its design; and (2) how findings might guide current practice and inform how vocal and operatic study are made more accessible to members of demographics which are historically marginalised in this area.

Ellan Alethia Lincoln-Hyde (SOAS). ‘Opera, Ableism and Marjorie Lawrence (1907-1979): An Historical Case Study of Increasing Accessibility in Tertiary Music Education’

The Australian dramatic soprano, Marjorie Lawrence (1907-1979) debuted to critical acclaim in 1932 as an able-bodied performed famed for her vivacious and dynamic stage presence within and beyond the elite world of opera. In 1941 she became a paraplegic after contracting polio. Her tenacity and determination to retain her place in the operatic world earned her further fame, as did her position as an established celebrity choosing to make her disability visible on stage and through various media. This paper shall explore the historical legacy of Lawrence in the latter half of her career, and how this effected the decisions she made as a senior staff member of several music higher education institutions in the American South from the 1950s-70s. By outlining the increased accessibility for students of various backgrounds Lawrence achieved nearly 50 years ago, this paper will highlight in particular how higher education in music, and opera especially, has stagnated. It shall be proposed that Lawrence’s groundwork as a performer and educator known for not only using but featuring her wheelchair could be a starting point for greater inclusion and diversity within contemporary opera education in tertiary institutions.

Andrew Hugill (University of Leicester). ‘Aural Diversity’

Aural Diversity is a recognition that everybody hears differently. Human hearing begins to decline after the age of approximately 20 (presbycusis). Millions of people experience a range of sensorineural and conductive hearing conditions, from profound deafness to hyperacusis (extreme sensitivity to sound), and including acoustic shock, tinnitus, notch losses, unbalanced hearing loss, diplacusis (inter-aural pitch difference) and many more.

Music in Higher Education typically assumes that everybody hears the same. The normalising function of standard aural tests presupposes a pair of perfectly balanced, otologically normal, ears. Music departments show little awareness of audiological issues. People with hearing differences often find themselves excluded. Yet it is an open secret that musicians are four times more likely than others to suffer hearing impairment (Schink et al. 2014).

Celebrated D/deaf musicians who have achieved recognition in the face of considerable opposition have typically done so by meeting the standards of ‘normal’ music-making. In other words, they have had to adapt to music, rather than music adapting to them. This applies even more to the wider community of less obviously hearing-impaired musicians. This form of exclusion should be of primary concern to music in HE, but is barely acknowledged, let alone discussed.

Panel 2 Difference, ‘Race’, Sexuality, Intersectionality

While the arrival of queer musicology 25 years ago (Brett, Wood & Thomas 1994) has paved the way for some (especially white, middleclass) LGBTQ+ people to announce their presence in music departments, there is still pervasive ignorance and dismissal of the concerns of LGBT music students and scholars. This presentation will outline the work of the LGBTQ+ Music Study Group, a body founded in 2016 and working across the sub-disciplines of music studies, whose mission is: 1) to promote academic inquiry into issues of gender and sexuality; 2) to create a support system for members of the LGBTQ+ community; and 3) to serve as a consulting body for wider issues of diversity and inclusion. Shaped by feminist, queer and decolonial theories, the Group has explored a range of urgent concerns, including mental health, safe spaces, bullying and sexual harassment, the neoliberal job market, and exclusions within the LGBTQ community. Drawing on our embodied experiences of academic activism, we will discuss what activities we have embarked on, what lessons we have learned, and what plans we have for the future. As gender, sexuality and race-based hate crimes rise in society, our presentation offers intersectional perspectives on the politics of equality, diversity and inclusion in music departments today.

Maiko Kawabata (Royal College of Music) and Shzr Ee Tan (Royal Holloway, University of London). ‘An Intersectional, Historically Aware, Minority-Led Approach to EDI in Music Education’

As female music scholars and practitioners of colour currently researching the ‘Yellow Peril’ in European and British music institutions, and who have both experienced first-hand and witnessed acts of (micro)aggression and bias perpetrated against ourselves/ colleagues/ students, we will share approaches we have taken in response (both successful and unsuccessful) and outline our vision for: - How to create safe spaces for difficult conversations moving into action - Responding to Chi-Chi Nwanoku’s provocation to those in power on what they/ we are willing to give up - Understanding the complexities of intersectionalities, including our own academic/ musical and class privilege in these conversations (specifically with reference to the recent Eastman School of Music’s China Tour scandal) - Examining the impact and projection of Chinese ‘clout’/student recruitment vis-à-vis new revenue streams - Recognising that we educators are all complicit in passively perpetuating institutional structures, including structural racism, unless we actively resist them (as argued by Juliet Hess 2019) - Addressing the fallacy of (Western classical) music being a ‘universal language’ -- following in the footsteps of Grace Wang 2015, Mina Yang 2014 and Mari Yoshihara 2007.

Genevieve Robyn Arkle (University of Surrey). ‘“I don’t see race”: A spotlight on the Voices of BAME Academics and Performers in Classical Music and Musicology’.

In the 2018 report conducted by NUS and Universities UK, it was established that only 16% of academic staff were BAME. Furthermore, only a mere 0.7% of senior academics and 0.6% of professors were Black, while at lower contract level, 4.5% identified at Mixed Race. In her best- selling and prize-winning novel ‘Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race,’ author Reni Eddo-Lodge states that ‘the mess we are living in is a deliberate one. If it was created by people, it can be dismantled by people, and it can be rebuilt in a way that serves all.’ In order to rebuild, we must first identify the walls that prevent a sense of inclusivity for members of the community of music higher education.

This paper concerns itself with the experiences and issues of BAME representation in classical music, considering the experiences of those working as performers in the industry, and academics and researchers establishing careers in the field of historical musicology. By presenting findings from a set of qualitative data, it intends to help give voice to individuals from across the field and offer an insight into the world of racial inequality in classical music.

Eleanor Ryan (University of Cambridge). ‘Whiteness from a distance’ : How institutional whiteness revealed itself in a Caribbean Higher Music Education workplace.

I will present an auto-ethnographic reflection on the years I spent as a Faculty member in a newly opened Higher Education Performing Arts Academy in Trinidad (2009-2018). Reflecting on ‘critical incidents’ that hailed my ‘Whiteness’ to me in phenomenological terms, ‘from great distance’ (Yancy, p. xxii), I’ll examine connections between my classical music training, ‘Whiteness’ and the ways this afforded me cultural/social/economic power in the Global South.

That ‘Whiteness’ is synonymous with Music Higher Education in the UK has enormous implications when exploring barriers to diversity in the sector. Even becoming ‘woke’ to institutional whiteness brings ‘warnings’ that ‘whiteness is always reasserting itself in new ways, “ambushing” its own efforts to disinvest itself of its power and profitability (Yancy, 2016, p. xiii, quoted in Denmead, 2019).

Nonetheless, I argue that engaging in intercultural projects that can expose whiteness phenomenologically is a powerful experiential tool towards institutional cultural change, so long as the participants are willing, as Denmead argues, to ‘run towards ideas that might threaten their social and institutional standing as white people’. (Denmead, 2019).

I will offer insights into a few such projects I engaged in in the Caribbean, and the ways these informed my teaching practice and H.E curriculum development.

Panel 3. Institutional Strategies

Stephen Graham (Goldsmiths, University of London). ‘Challenges and Opportunities: Music and Inclusion at Goldsmiths’

The Music Department at Goldsmiths has faced a number of challenges in recent years around questions of equality, diversity and inclusion. A pattern of student feedback on module evaluations and more informal settings has criticised the perceived bias towards white, male composers on certain modules; changing demographics and interests in applications for places on our degrees has underlined the need for considerable curricular revision; difficulties in recruiting diverse lecturers has lead to an unrepresentative staff team; a persistent attainment gap reflects our failure to properly support international and BAME students.

These challenges are hardly unique, and indeed must be seen within broader institutional and sector challenges around race and class in our classrooms and curricula. The 2019 Goldsmiths Anti- Racist Action, which successfully pushed for more critical race awareness and work across all tiers of the college, is a signal example of this kind of challenge. These challenges are also, of course, anchored in deep-rooted social and cultural inequalities, and as such can only be partially mitigated by HEIs.

And yet some mitigation is possible. We in the Music Department at Goldsmiths have worked across a number of fronts to address the issues summarised above, developing new forums for broad-based student feedback around questions of representation and participation; appointing diversity and representation officers; running a 'Liberate My Degree' group to look precisely and critically at questions of inclusivity and exclusion in module content and teaching; running department-specific anti-racist workshops for staff; and introducing a PGT BAME scholarship to support the progression of BAME scholars to postgrad research and potentially academic employment.

This presentation would examine these local issues and initiatives, asking critical questions about how we measure impact and success in the context of such deep-rooted social problems.

Diana Salazar and Natasha Loges (Royal College of Music). ‘Cores and Peripheries: Towards Diversity in the Conservatoire’

UK conservatoire curricula are still largely shaped around musical ‘cores’, overlapping canons of Western classical music (WCM), and evaluated through the language of excellence and elitism. Consequently, conservatoires are regarded as among the most traditional spaces in Music HE, posing even more barriers to diversity than university music departments. This is reflected in both the staff and student cohorts, not least because the declining investment in music within the state school system increasingly restricts access to WCM to privately educated children.

This paper briefly presents some strategies the Royal College of Music is employing to effect positive change while still maintaining a distinct identity as a conservatoire. These include: the creation of bespoke support for students from atypical backgrounds in the Junior Department; targeted support for auditions; BAME scholarships at BMus level; contextualised auditions; the diversification of history survey courses; the scrutiny of the performance programme; and the creation of learning resources around women composers.

We will reflect on successes and challenges thus far, including: managing staff and student expectations; the prevalence of cultural stereotyping; and the tension between bottom-up and top- down change. We will conclude with thoughts on pragmatic expectations of diversity in a conservatoire grounded in WCM.

Scott Caizley (King’s College London). ‘The Conservatoire Crisis’

Widening participation amongst state schooled and British and Minority Ethnic (BME) students in UK conservatoires throughout the past years has persisted to remain at an all time low despite major efforts to increase access for those from underrepresented backgrounds. In the academic year of 2017/18, two of the UK’s leading music conservatoires recruited less state school students than Oxbridge. Whilst conservatories face further public stigmatisation and heavy financial penalties for failing to meet government benchmarks, there appears to be a more costly outcome to this crisis. This of course, is the lack of sociocultural diversity which is perpetuated both within the conservatoire sector and the classical music industry. This research investigates the lived

10 experiences of former state schooled and BME students who are all studying a classical music performance degree in a UK conservatoire. Given the participant’s underrepresented status, the research seeks to answer whether or not the students are fitting in or standing out within the conservatoire environment. It is through illuminating the underrepresented voices within these elite spaces which could aid future research and policy to help tackle the diversity dilemma and give classical music the social and cultural renewal it so desperately needs.

Wiebke Thormahlen (Royal College of Music) and Jennie Henley (Royal Northern College of Music). Repertoire”, Methods, Objectives – what are the true barriers to diversity?

In this short intervention we would like to stimulate further thought on root causes of delineations that function as gate keepers to Higher Education Music Departments by suggesting that the question of diversity and inclusivity is intricately tied to two factors: first, our definitions of music including our discipline’s role in society; and second (addressing in particular – but not exclusively – the conservatoire sector) our understanding of excellence and its contribution to the artistic experience of audiences and performers.

We would like to suggest that the way to tackle these questions – and thereby opening spaces for long-term diversity of creative processes-cum-products that will attract talent and interest from a wider strata of society – can and should be defined by a greater awareness and application of “best practice” in research to all artistic learning activity. Key here is to bring along the wide variety of "teachers" involved in delivering any curriculum.

As an example, we will briefly outline the purpose and make-up of work started recently at the RCM that was designed to follow a traditional three-part pathway to tackling these issues: in phase one we provoked discussion of key questions pertaining to a musician’s role in society as well as questions of canon (including a canon of teaching methods); phase two follows internal dissemination before the third phase can deal with implementing changes. Our intention is to focus on the method of this approach and consider how we tackle issues of diversity from within the conservatoire

Javier Rivas Rodríguez (King’s College London). ’Beyond Diversity: Inclusive Teaching and Critical Pedagogy in SOAS and King’s College’

In recent years the discussion on inclusive teaching has consolidated its presence in Music Departments and acknowledged the relevance of diversity – regarding gender, ethnicity, class, disability or personality traits – in designing and teaching college courses. However, we still lack a more accurate understanding of the perspectives of academics and students within the departments. A focus on concrete experiences of teaching and learning allows us to explore the pursuit of equality and inclusion beyond the mechanisms of student support. This paper examines the ways in which lecturers from the Music Departments of SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) and King’s College London identify students’ needs and approach inclusive teaching. Drawing on new readings on Freirean pedagogy and the neoliberalization of diversity, I seek to

11 offer a critical overview of the reality of inclusive teaching in Music Higher Education. We have to recognize the need of a more interdisciplinary, communitarian and democratic approach, especially today, when departments of Arts and Humanities face the consequences of the banking education of a neoliberal world.

Panel 4. Across Cultures

Hussein Boon (University of Westminster). ‘The Ways of Making, Dissemination and Reception Have Changed, So What Should We Do About It?’

Artists such as Steve Lacey posit changes to song structure to reflect changes in consumption. Spotify data about skip rates potentially affects songwriting and recording. The growth in 'visual' music via You Tube and the diverse ways music can be made using a variety of technologies alongside traditional instruments, are all with us now. Given that our students are exposed to the Internet of Things, what can we do that accounts for this world in our teaching?

Understanding and appreciating music being made by others that previously may have been dismissed as 'impoverished' or low culture, is the place where HE educators will be challenged daily. HE implications around course and module design, learning outcomes, tasks, tutorials, assessments, feedback and qualitative expectations of the student experience, are all up for consideration.

Classics are fantastic models but what is the 'learning'? To write or perform like the exemplar, to feel inferior or should we take something else from the study? How does one facilitate and introduce interesting works and practices in HE Music courses that are enlightening and inclusive whilst walking the line between 'tradition' and contemporary creative practice? This presentation will highlight some examples from my teaching practice at Westminster.

Manuella Blackburn (Keele University) and Alok Nayak (Milapfest, UK). ‘Negotiating Diversity and Prejudice: A Case Study in Successful Cross-Cultural Collaboration’

‘Intercultural creativity’ is the name of a major research and performance project between Dr Manuella Blackburn (at Liverpool Hope University) and national Indian Arts & Culture company, Milapfest. Bringing together two very different organisations from different industries, the project saw a collaboration between Indian Classical and Electroacoustic music, and between two professionals, Alok Nayak and Manuella Blackburn. Framed by the context of Milapfest’s residency at Liverpool Hope University, the project was designed to explore and collect new musical sounds, create new work and have a far-reaching audience and educational impact. At the same time, the partners had to learn to understand each other’s perspective and negotiate questions of understanding, respect and authenticity. This led to a fascinating project that needed to navigate questions of difference and authority, while producing work that was relevant to both.

Milapfest was invited to be a tenant and resident partner at the University in 2010 and was located in a prominent position on campus within the university walls. With the support of the Vice-Chancellor, partnership and collaboration was encouraged. The collaboration with Dr Blackburn provided a space to confront issues of BME labels, diversity, inclusion, hierarchies and research agendas. This presentation asks the following questions: How did academics view the position of Milapfest and its role as a partner? What was the relevance of Indian arts to the life of the University, and in particular the Music Department? And how did Milapfest see its new role as an opportunity to engage?

This talk tells a story of how University departments can break down barriers and engage across barriers of difference and diversity.

Kevin Komisaruk (University of Toronto). ‘Encouraging Diversity Through Development of Creative Identity’

Asserting equality, diversity, and inclusion among its core values, the University of Toronto Faculty of Music explores how innovations to our curriculum can enhance learning and human experiences for our students, especially those for whom the traditional programme streams of performance, composition, musicology, theory, or education insufficiently capture the full spectrum of artistic or scholarly identity. In our newly-created undergraduate course series entitled “Creative Identities in Music,” students complete topic units on agency, power, status, control, validation, failure, and adversity in an explicitly-defined safe space, with a view towards understanding the many ways in which creative expression may flourish or become obstructed. By allowing students to inhabit their inherent and multi-faceted diversity organically, this course strives both to provide an immediate experience of diversity without “languaging” about it, as well as to understand its meaning as broadly as possible. Through group discussion, role-playing activities and self-directed projects, students are guided towards expressing clear visions of themselves as diverse, creative individuals, and creating artefacts, experiences, and relationships that are coherent with this vision. The proposed presentation will briefly outline the structure, assessment, and theoretical framework of this course, and provide samples of student artefacts and responses.

Biographies

Genevieve Robyn Arkle Genevieve is a Ph.D. researcher at the University of Surrey. Her research examines both the musical and aesthetic parallels in Mahler’s Ninth and Tenth Symphonies to Richard Wagner’s final music drama, Parsifal. She previously held a position as Associate Lecturer at the University of Surrey, and is a co-founder and Deputy-Director of the Institute of Austrian and German Music Research (IAGMR.) She also works as an Outreach Advocate, aiming to help school aged students engage with Classical Music. As a BAME academic, she hopes to be able to use her voice to increase awareness to issues of diversity in the field of Musicology.

Manuella Blackburn Dr Manuella Blackburn completed her PhD in electroacoustic music composition in 2010 with the supervision of Professor Ricardo Climent at the University of Manchester. Manuella began lecturing at Liverpool Hope University in 2010 before taking up a post at Keele University in 2019. She has been composing for over 15 years and has created a wide range of electroacoustic music works for instruments and electronics, fixed media, sound installation work, music for dance and for film. Her specialism within the field of electroacoustic music is fixed media – acousmatic music for loudspeakers. Her work has been performed in over 250 performances globally. Her music has been awarded prizes in a number of competitions and festivals around the world. Manuella’s academic writings focus on three primary research areas: soundfile brevity, intercultural creativity and sound/musical borrowing within electroacoustic music, and she has published and presented her works widely.

Hussein Boon Hussein is a multi instrumentalist, composer and music educator. He has taught for many institutions including Goldsmiths, City Lit, CM and IoE and for organisations the Prince’s Trust, music and arts services for Harrow, Hammersmith, Ealing and Westminster. He has worked for a number of artists including Beats International, Karen Ramirez, Eusebe, DeLa Soul and many others. As a writer his material has been featured in films and tv and was part of the team to establish Rockschool popular music exams. He is an independent artist running his own record label and organises the London Ableton Live User Group.

Scott Caizley Scott Caizley is a former classical musician who is now an ESRC fully funded PhD researcher at Kings College London. Scott holds a first-class honours degree from UCL and an MPhil degree from the University of Cambridge. His research in widening participation to classical music has received international acclaim and has been published by ‘The Classical Music’ magazine (Rhinegold), ‘The Higher Education Policy Institute’ (HEPI) and he is also a guest columnist for UK leading news outlets.

Rachel Cowgill Rachel Cowgill is professor of music at the University of York, and previously held professorships at Huddersfield (Head of Dept, 2014-19), Cardiff (Head of School, 2013-14) and Liverpool Hope universities, following a senior lectureship at the University of Leeds. Her research interests include gender and sexuality in opera, and she co-edited the collection The

Arts of the Prima Donna in the Long Nineteenth Century (2012). She has been editor of the Journal of the Royal Musical Association, a vice-president of the RMA, and chair and vice-chair of NAMHE. Currently she chairs the RMA LGBTQ+ Music Study Group. Her MMus and PhD are from King’s College, London.

Daniel Galbreath Daniel Galbreath is a researcher, music educator, and conductor based in Birmingham. He holds PhD from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, where he currently teaches conducting, devising, and first-year foundational skills. His research explores the embodied, subjective, interactive experiences and creativity of vocal performers. Daniel has led numerous educational workshops across the UK, involving young people in a wide range of creative performance opportunities. Active as a conductor, Daniel founded and direct Via Nova vocal ensemble (Birmingham), and is music director for the COREus youth choir and Waste Paper experimental opera company.

Stephen Graham Stephen is Co-Head of Department and a Senior Lecturer in Music at Goldsmiths, University of London, where he specialises in twentieth and twenty-first century music and culture. His book on underground and fringe experimental musics, Sounds of the Underground, was published by University of Michigan Press in May, 2016. Stephen has had articles or chapters published on fringe avant-gardes (Perspectives of New Music, 2010), Justin Timberlake (American Music, 2014), The X Factor and reality television (Popular Music, 2017) and popular modernism (Routledge Research Companion to Modernism, 2018), and is working on an edited book about the 21st century music degree in the UK.

Jennie Henley Jennie is the Director of Programmes at the Royal Northern College of Music. Prior to this she was Area Head of Music Education at the Royal College of Music, where she designed innovative music education programmes and modules, including distance learning and continuing professional development, embedding this work across the curriculum.

Thomas Hilder Thomas Hilder is associate professor in ethnomusicology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). His current research explores queer European citizenship by focusing on LGBT music ensembles in London, Rome and Warsaw. Earlier research has focused on popular music of the Sámi, the politics of Indigeneity and digital media. He is author of Sámi Musical Performance and the Politics of Indigeneity in Northern Europe (2015), lead editor of Music, Indigeneity, Digital Media (2017) and currently chairs the LGBTQ+ Music Study Group. He gained his MMus and PhD from Royal Holloway, University of London.

Andrew Hugill Andrew Hugill is a composer, musicologist and Professor of Music. In 1997, he created the Music, Technology and Innovation programme at De Montfort University. In 2009 he was diagnosed with Ménière’s Disease, a multifactorial condition which includes serious balance problems, severe hearing loss, wildly fluctuating tinnitus and diplacusis. Since then, he has switched careers and is now Professor of Creative Computing at the University of Leicester. In

2018 he founded the Aural Diversity project www.auraldiversity.org which signalled his re- engagement with live music-making following a partial technological solution to some of his listening challenges.

Maiko Kawabata Maiko Kawabata is a musicologist and violinist based at the Royal College of Music, where she is a Lecturer in Music. Mai’s main research interest is in the history of musical performance, with a focus on extremes of solo violin playing – convention-breaking styles and ideas such as virtuosity and unplayability. She is the co-organiser with Shzr Ee Tan of the RHUL/RCM Study Day ‘Cultural Imperialism and the New “Yellow Peril” in Western Classical Music (10 June 2019) and the IMR/RCM Conference ‘Racialised Performance in Western Classical Music in Europe and the UK’ with Keynote Speaker Jennifer Koh (22 June 2020).

Kevin Komisaruk Kevin Komisaruk is a historical keyboard musician based at the University of Toronto since 2003, and a core faculty member in the Music and Health Research Collaboratory. His research explores intersections between performance practice, rhetoric, flow theory, kinaesthetics and improvisation, and how these impact the spiritual, emotional, and physical health of artists and listeners. At the Faculty of Music, he serves as Advisor for Teaching and Learning Engagement, teaches organ and harpsichord performance, as well as courses in identity, improvisation, pedagogy, keyboard theory, and palliative care. He is the creator of the Creative Identities in Music course series.

Ellan Alethia Lincoln-Hyde As a PhD Candidate in History at SOAS, Ellan Alethia Lincoln-Hyde is currently researching the spread of the Western classical musical sound across in the first half of the twentieth century. Their research broadly concerns the use and creation of music during times of conflict and great social change. Previous projects have included Wagner as used by Allied forces in WWII, Socialist Realist mass song composition in China pre-1949, and the foundation of the Afghan Institute of Music, Kabul (2010). Their interest in inclusivity within music is centred on the legacy of fellow Australian, the dramatic soprano Marjorie Lawrence (1907-1909).

Natasha Loges Natasha Loges is Head of Postgraduate Programmes and Reader in Musicology at the Royal College of Music. She is author of Brahms and his Poets (2017). Her coedited books are Musical Salon Culture in the Long Nineteenth Century (2019), Brahms in Context (2019), Brahms in the Home and the Concert Hall (2014) and German Song Onstage, coedited with Laura Tunbridge (forthcoming). Natasha also broadcasts on BBC Radio 3, reviews for BBC Music Magazine and speaks at many festivals and venues, including the Southbank Centre, BBC Proms, Wigmore Hall, Sheffield Music in the Round, the Oxford Lieder Festival and Leeds Lieder.

Alok Nayak Alok Nayak is CEO and Artistic Director of Milapfest, an international Indian Arts & Culture Company. Its mission is to inspire, educate and entertain through Indian performing arts. As head of the organisation, Alok is responsible for planning, production and delivery of a wide ranging programme of performances, artist development work and education projects. His

16 specialist experience includes artistic production, education programmes and mentoring, and through his role in creating cross-cultural collaborations he engages with partners from across the spectrum of academic, business and creative industries. Alongside this, Alok is writing a PhD (University of Liverpool) based on the work he does as Artistic Director, and the creation of a ‘new Indian Classical Music’ in Britain. The idea explores the process of music making in Britain, its identity, roots and expression and how it reflects the shifting cultural identity of Indian music.

Javier Rivas Javier is a MMus Music Master's student at King's College London with a particular interest in popular music, politics and public pedagogy. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Musicology from the University of Oviedo, with the SGAE End of Degree Award. He has been granted with an Erasmus scholarship in the University of Helsinki (2017-18) and a scholarship for Postgraduate Studies offered by the Mutua Madrileña Foundation (2019-20).

Eleanor Ryan Originally from New Zealand, Eleanor Ryan is a violinist, educator and academic researcher with interests spanning intercultural and interdisciplinary performance, and cultural diversity in arts education. She has extensive performance experience with top UK orchestras, and in the Caribbean as Principal Violinist of the Ibis Ensemble. Recent collaborations include work with British-Trinidadian musician/poet Anthony Joseph, Saxophonist Jason Yarde, The Neal and Massey Trinidad All Stars Steel Orchestra, British Theatre company Oyster Creatives, and experimental film collective, Neuf. Eleanor gained a masters with distinction from the Royal Northern College of Music. From 2009-2018 she was an Assistant Professor of Violin at the University of Trinidad and Tobago. She is currently writing an MPhil in Arts, Creativity and Education at the University of Cambridge.

Diana Salazar Diana Salazar has held Lectureships in Music at Kingston University and City University and was head of BMus at Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (Head of BMus). She has extensive international experience as an external examiner in music and music technology. She trained as a flautist at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama before specialising in composition for Masters studies. As a composer and sound artist her works have been performed and broadcast internationally, with many of her works recognised in leading international competitions including Bourges, Música Viva, the International Computer Music Association Awards, Musica Nova and Prix Destellos.

Richard Shrewsbury Richard Shrewsbury, Head of Learning and Participation and a Senior Lecturer in Music Education at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, has developed the widest ranging Learning and Participation programme of any UK Conservatoire, annually reaching over 4,500 young people from diverse backgrounds across the UK. Richard is passionate about creativity, music and the arts and their connection to social and cultural mobility. Richard has won awards as an education consultant, and regularly delivers keynote speeches and training in schools across the music education sector. He was made Honorary Member of RBC (2005), for services to music and music education.

Shzr Ee Tan Shzr Ee Tan is a Senior Lecturer and ethnomusicologist at Royal Holloway, University of London, where she is also the Director of Equality and Diversity at its School of Performing and Digital Arts. Her research spans a range of topics and geocultural areas from feminist intersectionalities and digital inequalities in sounded worlds to discrete fieldwork projects on protest culture in London and Singapore.

Wiebke Thormählen Wiebke Thormählen joined the Royal College of Music in September 2013 as Area Leader in History. Her research, previously funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Wellcome Trust, and The Austrian Academic Exchange Service, explores the formulation of music as a language of emotions and its particular role in educational theories and policies since the eighteenth century. Having worked on aesthetic and educational ideals in Viennese salons of the late 18th century during her PhD, she now focusses on Britain in the late Georgian period, exploring music in domestic settings with a particular focus on arrangements of large-scale works, and domestic devotional music. Her interest in music as a social activity extends outwards from the domestic to the development and meaning of amateur choral societies in England.

She has contributed articles and reviews to the Journal of Musicology, Eighteenth-Century Music, Early Music, Notes, Acta Mozartiana and Neues Musikwissenschaftliches Jahrbuch and is currently working on a book exploring the meaning of different forms of “musical engagements” in early 19th-century London. Wiebke is a Co-Investigator on Music, Home and Heritage, Sounding the Domestic in Georgian Britain, a three year AHRC -funded research project with the University of Southampton.