PARTICIPANTS: A SYNOPSIS OF RESEARCH INTERESTS

Louise Atkins

I have recently embarked upon doctoral research investigating how music students within the UK conservatoire sector are educated and supported in matters of occupational health and wellbeing, and will explore the feasibility of implementing a national strategy and/or policy in this area.

The notion of a single, national initiative is something that is becoming increasingly common internationally, and this project will assess whether UK conservatoires should also become more united on health-related issues. The task will be approached in a variety of ways, including a survey of current provision mapped against the perceived needs of students, an examination of established practice in parallel agendas internationally, and an exploration of the thoughts of key stakeholders on the possibility of a common approach in the specialist training of musicians.

Although this project is very much embedded in the health sciences, my background is in music. As a clarinettist I studied at both undergraduate and postgraduate level within the conservatoire sector, however this is my first large-scale research project from a social science/educational perspective. I decided to take this route into more scientific, health-based research and make musicians’ health a key focus of my work whilst studying at the Hannover University of Music and Theatre on an ERASMUS exchange four years ago. There I was privileged to work with some world leaders in the field of music medicine, and I quickly grew to realise how important health and wellbeing is in both enhancing and prolonging a performing career.

I have been working on developing the approach, design and methodology of this project from a health science standpoint, but am mindful that the research must be relevant, useful and useable in a practical way within a conservatoire setting. I have a diverse team of supervisors based in three distinct subject areas; one in a conservatoire (RWCMD), one in the Cardiff Institute of Creative and Cultural Industries and the other within the Faculty of Health Sport and Science at the . The mixing of artistic and scientific contexts is an important, but complex element of this project. It is very new to me, and to my supervisors!

Jane Booth

Jane Booth is a specialist in the early clarinet and chalumeau. In addition to her work as Head of Historical Performance at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, she has pursued a busy international career, playing all over the world with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Avison Ensemble, Orchestre des Champs-Elysées, English Baroque Soloists, Tafelmusik, Gabrieli Consort, The Sixteen, Anima Aeterna, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Handel Orchestra and The of Ancient Music etc. Jane has worked under the direction of Sir , Sir , Sir Roger Norrington, Sir , Sir , Harry Christophers, , Vladimir Jurowski, Bruno Weil and Philippe Herreweghe. Her repertoire is vast and extends from the works of Handel, Telemann and Vivaldi through to Wagner, Mahler and Debussy – all on historically appropriate instruments. Jane is also much in demand as a chamber musician and concerto soloist in the UK, North America, Japan, Australia and Europe. Early in her career she was invited to perform for the Early Music Network in several national tours with prizewinning ensembles. More recently her performances of Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet in Ontario with the Eybler Quartet, The Wigmore Hall with EnsembleF2, Tudeley Festival and North York Moors Festival have been widely acclaimed. Solo performances include baroque concertos by Fasch, Telemann, Graupner, and Molter, Mozart’s Concerto for basset clarinet and Weber’s Concertos performed across Europe. Recording projects include Mozart Gran Partita (Harmonia Mundi), “Aux Armes Citoyens” - Revolutionary Wind Music from France (ATMA), Mozart Clarinet Quintet with the Eybler Quartet (Analekta - September 2010); chamber music by Schumann (sfz); and Schubert (sfz); “Clarinets by Arrangement” a programme of nineteenth century arrangements of popular works employing basset clarinet, basset horn and fortepiano (sfz).

Maria Brzuchowska

Since 1989 I have been a violinist of the Witold Lutoslawski Philharmonic Orchestra in Wroclaw and I am a part-time lecturer at the Karol Lipinski Academy of Music in Wroclaw, Poland. I am currently pursuing doctoral studies at the National University of Music in Bucharest, Romania, on the subject of the ‘Formation of the Orchestral Musician’, looking at both the sociology and psychology of the orchestra.

The two orchestral paradoxes are that orchestral players are not taught theory of conducting while conductors’ training is little concerned with the people factor in this profession. It lacks both a theory of socio-techniques and experience of verbal communicating with the orchestra, whilst intuitive responses predominant in players, even though they perceive it as ‘understanding’ the conductor’s intention, has further implications in player-conductor interaction.

The efficiency of the orchestra is understood as an instrument of sophisticated machinery is affected by psychological and sociological factors, such as player’s necessity of transferring cathexis from self-expression to contribution; impact of mood on response to conductor’s gestures, and on performance’s brilliance; impact of emotion derived from inner social interaction context of ensemble performance.

Underestimation of playing in orchestra perceived as artisanal task may be discussed in terms of A. Maslow’s idea of integrated creativity. Further player’s frustrations may be catalysed by: unbalanced poise of introversion - extraversion; permanent re-evaluation; peers pressure; spatial proximity of players and distance from the conductor, from which derive many orchestral peculiarities to be considered in terms of E.T. Hall’s proxemics.

Significance of players’ creativity and motivating enthusiasm, supported by theories of F. Herzberg or M.F. Losada (in context of group inertia, importantly), should be reflected in methods for orchestral homogeneity, and particularly because the phenomenon of the orchestra is constantly evolving, both artistically and sociologically. The change of the audience’s musical identities, and of its music listening habits may eventually have impact on orchestral repertoire, on conductor’s role, on concert format and, ultimately, on orchestral shape and activities.

Kirsteen Davidson-Kelly

I have been performing and recording contemporary music since 1989, primarily as a founder member of Piano Circus, as well as teaching and working in a variety of contexts in creative music education. I am now studying part-time for a PhD in Music at the Institute for Music in Human and Social Development at the , supervised by Dr. Katie Overy and Dr. Nikki Moran. My research interest is in the use of mental imagery as a learning tool and was largely inspired by my own participation in a course in Alexander Technique and piano playing taught by Nelly Ben-Or. Her teaching concerning the use of mental imagery appeared to have marked effects on my own and other advanced pianists’ performance; this, and my interest in developing my own teaching practice, triggered my current research. I aim to contribute to the growing body of literature about musical imagery and mental practice and, more generally, to related work on musicians’ health and well-being. To begin the PhD I acted as participant-observer at another of Nelly Ben-Or’s courses; participants included conservatoire students and professional pianists from across Europe. In order to examine some of the outcomes of the course I video-recorded interviews and teaching sessions; I also collected questionnaire responses from all participants, both during the course and several months later.

The analysis of this material informed an online questionnaire examining learning strategy choices and self-perceptions of skill. Piano students from five UK colleges took part in the survey, analysis of which is ongoing. I am currently designing two experiments. An fMRI study of musical imagery is being developed in collaboration with Prof. Neil Roberts at the Centre for Medical Imaging Research at the University of Edinburgh. To date I have been acquiring research skills in fMRI experimental design and analysis (running pilot experiments and learning data analysis software); a full experiment is planned for this spring. In addition, a behavioural experiment with UK conservatoire students is planned for next academic year.

Sebastiano Dessanay

I have been active in piano pedagogy and performance for more than 13 years. As a full time teacher at the largest state in Rio de Janeiro (BRAZIL), I gave instrumental lessons and trained students to entry undergraduate courses in Brazilian universities from 2003 to 2010. My previous academic training includes Bachelor in Piano (1997), Teaching Certification (2001), and Masters (2005). After completing a MA in Performance Practice, I recorded a CD with 25 piano pieces by the living Brazilian Edmundo Villani-Cortes which was recently launched in Brazil (2010).

I am MPhil/PhD student in the Department of Arts and Humanities of the Institute of Education (IOE), , under the guidance of Professor Graham Welch, Dr. Evangelos Himonides and Dr. Cynthia Stephens Himonides. My MPhil/PhD studies have been supported by the Brazilian scholarship CAPES since October 2010. My research subject is within the area of psychology of music, piano pedagogy and performance, and feedback using technology. My previous practical knowledge from my work experience in piano teaching, performance and studio recordings made me start thinking about the possible applications of current technology in piano classes. The aim of this research is to study how and to what extent current technology can be used as a teaching & learning strategy in order to monitor and/or enhance musical expression in piano performance practice.

The most recent pilot study which has been developed by the research team involves studying main differences and similarities in musical expression (timing) between four recordings (two world-class and two non-world-class pianists). The chosen repertoire was the Mazurka Op.17 No. 4 by Chopin and the extract was 8 measures long (left hand notes). The methodology used the two free downloadable software programs: audacity and wavesufer. Audacity was used to extract and edit the wave format of the piano recordings. Wavesufer was used to insert and label the onset notes and to make the transcriptions of notes` durations. Excel was used to bring the visual representation of the time deviations of notes (bass, chords and octaves). The results of this study will be obtained soon.

Celia Duffy

Celia Duffy is Director of Academic Development at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD). Career experience ranges from lecturing in music at Goldsmiths, University of London to commercial software design and project management and new applications of C&IT in higher education. As Head of Research she founded the National Centre for Research in the Performing Arts, and led the team responsible for development and management of research, consultancy and knowledge exchange activities. She designed the Academy’s practice-based research programmes, validated by the . Celia is currently leading the RSAMD’s Curriculum Reform, an ambitious project aiming to re-define the contemporary conservatoire learning experience and re-position the Academy’s offer. She was awarded a Professorship of the RSAMD in July 2010.

Celia’s research interests are in performing arts education, the use of digital technology and knowledge exchange in the arts. Her roles as director of HOTBED, a three-year JISC-funded project at the RSAMD and co-investigator in the EU-funded EASAIER project reflect research interests in utilisation of new technology in learning and teaching in the performing arts. She has led the consultancy work of the RSAMD which has gained a high profile in the education policy area, starting with the influential Scottish Youth Music Audit in 2003 resulting in the Youth Music Initiative. She recently directed an SFC-funded knowledge exchange project with Sistema Scotland looking at ways of maximising the interactions between researchers and policy partners. She was a co-investigator in an ESRC-funded research project Investigating Musical Performance led by Professor Graham Welch. Finding herself drawn to the kind of multi-disciplinary research partnerships under the spotlight at today’s conference in all of her recent projects, Celia is very much looking forward to the discussions at the Guildhall today.

Papatzikis Efthymios

Research Fellow at the Graduate School of Education, Harvard University; Academic Associate at the Institute of Education, University of London; International Music Examiner for the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO). Efthymios’s career and studies has been nurtured in Greece, Germany, The Netherlands, France and the UK, from where he holds in sum eight degrees and qualifications in Music Performance, Music Education and Education. He has been consistently active as an academic, performer and violin teacher, presenting a continuously expanding portfolio of international performances, publications, research projects and teaching activities.

With a special interest in instrumental music psychology and education, he has widely worked on O. Ševčík’s violin teaching and learning methodology (PhD in Music; University of East Anglia, 2010), while topics relevant to Historical , Intercultural Awareness in Music and Designing Music Courses have also been included in his research. He has published and presented his research findings in both national and international journals and conferences, while his practical working experience includes many years of violin teaching (more than 10 consecutive years), coaching, tutoring and lecturing.

Efthymios’ present research activity is focused on the Scholarship of Teaching in Music in Higher and Adult Education. Currently, being a Research Fellow at Harvard University (2010-2011) and an Academic Associate at the Institute of Education, University of London (2009-2011), he conducts post-doc research, applying and investigating educational theories in the music context. With his project The Scholarship of Teaching in Music Education: Towards a Reflective Practice, he endeavours to approach the music-teaching framework through a more intrapersonal and reflective aspect, while he expects to identify and frame teacher-focused links between music education and wider education. Preliminary findings of this research have been already presented in major conferences in London and Athens (“Excellence in Teaching”, King’s College, 2010; “12th International Annual Conference on Education”, ATINER, 2010), while more papers have been accepted or will be prepared for future publication and presentation.

Georgina Emmanuel

I am a PhD student at Kings College London. My supervisors are Professors Brian Street and Constant Leung. The research is being conducted at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. I commenced the research in November 2010. It continues until December 2011. The title of my thesis is: ‘Evolving Identities: the learning experiences of international students of music performance in a UK conservatoire’.

In UK conservatoires international students aspiring to careers as performers or composers are a strong presence, yet little researched. This study therefore seeks to provide new understanding on how such individuals may experience academic and music socialisation, pedagogies and practices, and particularly how they may see their personal and musical identities evolve. With nine student participants as case studies, the research aims to elicit students’ expectations and aspirations on entry to the conservatoire and their experiences in their first and part of their second year of studies. It will examine the students’ perspectives on teaching and learning in a prestigious conservatoire, and on being instructed in a language that is not their first language; and it will study the extent to which the students participate in different communities of practice. An exploratory study will adopt an ethnographic perspective. The research will deploy four data collection methods, viz. narrative and life histories of the participants, non-directive interviews, participant observation and the researcher’s own reflexive journal. To provide a narrative frame to analyse the students’ life histories and stories, relevant literature from the fields of education, music, socio-cultural studies, socio-linguistics, sociology and anthropology will be drawn upon to assist analysis and interpretation of the data.

Gemma Feeley

Gemma has a BA (Hons) degree in Performing Arts (Dance) from and recently gained an MSc in Dance Science (with Distinction) from Laban. A trained dancer, Gemma holds teaching associates with the National Association of Teachers of Dancing and has experience teaching a range of technique and creative dance at recreational and higher education level.

Gemma’s current research interests involve an exploration of student musicians’ body awareness through the use of movement and somatic based principles. The playing of a musical instrument and the creation of sound is a physical activity. Whilst research to date has given us an improved understanding of the physical and psychological characteristics of the individual musician, much of what has been learned about the physicality of making-music and the musician’s body has come from research focusing on the prevention and rehabilitation of injury and a first-person experiential understanding of the musician’s body remains under-investigated. The aim of this study was to gain an insight into and understanding of student musicians’ body awareness. In gaining a first-person experiential understanding of the musician’s body, this study makes some progress towards exploring the musician’s body, with and without the ‘instrument’.

Data for this study was collected in two parts. Firstly, a series of group movement and somatic- based classes were delivered to the student musicians. Secondly, the use of semi-structured, qualitative, open-ended interviews, were employed as a way of seeking to understand the body awareness of musicians’ in relation to music training and music-making activities. Thematic analysis of the interview data using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis revealed three categories: the affect the movement and somatic classes had on the musicians’ awareness of the body; implications of movement and somatic principles to music-making activities; and the application of movement and somatic principles to music training and music-making activities. The value of including movement and somatic classes within music training is shown, the contribution to our understanding of music-making activities from an experiential basis explored and the applicability of the field of dance and dance science to other artistic disciplines, namely music, highlighted.

Claudio Forcada

My research is on ‘Violin Pedagogy and Motor Learning’. The aim of my dissertation is to consider the relevance of Motor Learning to violin pedagogy. This entails:

• The examination of existing psychological models of motor learning and identify key concepts.

• The study of three significant contributions to the development of violin pedagogy in the 20th Century. • An examination of aspects of motor learning in the violin methods of Suzuki, Rolland and Havas.

Most of the researchers on sport psychology as well as some musical authorities, such as Hallam, Sloboda or Lehmann, reference motor learning theories in their works. However, there are still significant differences in how sport and music psychologists use motor learning as a base for their research. These differences tend to make music teachers’ methods look intuitive, dependent on oral transmission and trial and error. Analysing these differences between sport psychology and violin pedagogy in the way they use motor learning theories is the base that I am using to develop my case studies. The conclusions of the research will be reflected in the proposal of a model that helps performers to acquire the necessary elements to become effective teachers. This model will include organizational, technical, and affective aspects, as well as those related to motivation and communication.

Institutional context: The research is part of a doctoral thesis project that I am currently writing at Birmingham City University with supervisors Prof. Peter Johnson and Prof. Janet Hoskins. Teachers and pupils participating in the experimental studies are located in institutions with different social and organisational circumstances. I have programmed both quantitative and qualitative research to give a holistic view of people and institutions participating in the studies, emphasising not only habits, procedures and the inner working but also their contexts.

I have already developed one and two-year training courses at two Conservatoires and one music school in Spain, observing the influence of Motor Learning techniques on the teaching staff and how changes in their teaching habits help their pupils’ progress. In April 2010 I visited two violin programs in USA where I carried out interviews, lesson observations and surveys.

Helena Gaunt

Helena Gaunt is the Assistant at the Guildhall School, with responsibility for research and academic development. She is a National Teaching Fellow (2009). Previously she was the Deputy Head of Wind, Brass and Percussion, and was an oboe teacher in the School for 20 years. Her current research focuses on one-to-one tuition in conservatoires, the role of improvisation (verbal and musical) as a professional skill shared across disciplines both within and outside the performing arts, and on the formation and development of professional musical identities. She is a member of the Editorial Board of the British Journal of Music Education, and chairs the Innovative Conservatoire (ICON) group and the Forum for Instrumental/Vocal Teaching for the International Society of Music Education. She also chaired the Research working group of the Polifonia project for the Association of European Conservatoires (AEC), 2007-10, resulting in a publication: (2010). Researching Conservatoires: Enquiry, Innovation and the Development of Artistic Practice in Conservatoires (http://www.polifonia-tn.org ). She has been active in promoting professional development opportunities for teachers in conservatoires, including developing specialist training for conservatoire teachers in collaboration with the Institute of Education, London University, and pioneering an international collaboration in teacher development, the Innovative Conservatoire project. Helena was born in Rome. She read English at King’s College Cambridge, and an MA in Sociology of Literature at Essex University. She studied at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama for a year on the postgraduate Performance and Communications Skills Course, and has studied the oboe with Tess Miller, Celia Nicklin, Helmut Winschermann and Nicholas Daniel. She completed a PhD at the Institute of Education: “Student and teacher perceptions of one-to-one instrumental and vocal tuition in a conservatoire.” As a professional oboe player, Helena has been a member of the Haffner Wind Ensemble and Britten Sinfonia. With a particular interest in contemporary music, she has commissioned several works for oboe and harp, and has been involved in many premieres, including a concertante work by the jazz composer Keith Tippett, written for her and the Composers’ Ensemble.

Helena lives in London and has five children, including two sets of twins.

Chris Gayford

Following an extended period of research with John Sloboda, Caroline Minassian and Jane Ginsborg at TCM, Keele and RNCM, I’m continuing a to work with Jane Ginsborg on a project called Feeling Sound, exploring listeners’ embodied experiences of pitch, degrees of tension/release and tonality. This project started in 2008, and extended my collaboration with Jane, which started in 2006 when I worked with her at RNCM as a Visiting Research Fellow.

In 2008 we created an on-line “lab”, and invited members of the public (with the help of BBC Radio 3) to take part in a series of experiments and surveys. Over 1,000 people completed tests and surveys in the seven labs. We followed this up in 2009 with a public lecture at the Royal Institution, where an audience of over 200 people took part in a replication of one of the on-line surveys followed by a summary of part of the research so far. We asked them to report on whether they felt different pitches in different bodily locations. They responded using a data- collection device that enabled them to indicate whether they felt pitches in 5 bodily locations.

Jane and I are now writing-up this project, and considering ways of disseminating the results to a wider audience.

Jane Ginsborg

Jane Ginsborg was a professional singer before she became a psychologist, obtaining her Advanced Diploma in Singing Studies from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She holds BA (Hons) degrees in music (York) and psychology (OU); she carried out her PhD research at under the supervision of John Sloboda. She was a lecturer in psychology at the , a post-doctoral researcher at the University of and Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Leeds Metropolitan University. She is now Associate Dean of Research and Enterprise at the Royal Northern College of Music, having been a Research Fellow there since 2005. In addition to teaching undergraduate courses on psychology for musicians, and music psychology, including research methods she fulfils the roles of Director of the Centre for Music Performance Research and Programme Leader for Research Degrees. She has published widely on expert musicians' preparation for performance, collaborative music making and musicians' health, and won the British Voice Association's Van Lawrence Award in 2002 for her research on singers' memorizing strategies. She is currently Managing Editor of the on-line journal Music Performance Research and Associate Editor of the Journal of Interdisciplinary Musicology and Musicae Scientiae. Current research projects include an AHRC-funded investigation, with colleagues at the , of interactive performance for musicians with hearing impairments.

Jane has a long-standing interest in practice-based research. In collaboration with the cognitive psychologist Roger Chaffin at the University of Connecticut she has been exploring her own practice, rehearsal, performance and recall for specific works since 2003; indeed she first presented on the topic of "The Performer as Researcher" at the inaugural Reflective Conservatoire conference held at GSMD in 2006. She is now active in the Practice as Research Consortium (North-West), which brings together researchers from a variety of arts, and will be giving a keynote lecture at their annual Carnival in July 2011. She recently established a Music Practice- as-Research Working Group with colleagues at RNCM, Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Hertfordshire, one of the aims of which is to develop the teaching of research methods for practitioners including composers and performers.

Sophie Grimmer

I have been undergoing non-academic research as a practitioner in Western classical music for over two decades. Reflecting upon my own processes as a solo performer and music educator, exchanging ideas with colleagues and students, I continually engage in ‘informal’ empirical investigations, both independent and collaborative. My experiences as a professional musician, as ‘participant observer’ within a particular ‘community of practice’ (Lave & Wenger 1991), have led to an interest in the interface between the transmission of musical knowledge and technical skill and its realisation in performance. How does a particular cultural paradigm of training impact upon the development of an individual’s creative ‘voice’ for music-making? My PhD research at the Institute of Education, funded by the AHRC, is a response to my observations as performer, teacher and learner within the Western classical tradition.

I have sung lead roles in (ENO, Aldeburgh Festival, Banff Arts Centre) and theatre (RNT, Shakespeare’s Globe) under directors/conductors such as Sir Peter Hall, Stephen Pimlott, David Freeman, Simon McBurney and Esa-Pekka Salonen. In concert, I have performed with ensembles including the Brodsky Quartet, and Richard Alston Dance Company.

Alongside my performing career, I have worked extensively in music education. I am vocal professor at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Drama; visiting director of devised voice- work for BMus/MA productions (RADA, Saint Martin’s Drama Centre); and director/soloist for creative music education projects (including Glyndebourne, Spitalfields Festival, ENO Baylis, Oxford Lieder Festival)

Anthony Gritten

A Fellow of the of Organists, Anthony performs across the UK, Europe, and Canada, and has a close working relationship with the French organist-composer Daniel Roth, several of whose recent works he has premiered. He performed the complete works of Buxtehude in a single six-and-a-half hour recital to celebrate the composer's tercentenary, the complete works of Mendelssohn in 4 recitals to celebrate his bicentenary, and he has toured works by and Wolfgang Rihm around the UK.

Anthony has co-edited two volumes of essays on Music and Gesture (Ashgate), and is contracted to co-edit a volume on Music and Value Judgement (Indiana UP). His essays have appeared in the journals Performance Research, Musicae Scientiae, Dutch Journal of Music Theory, and British Journal of Aesthetics, in various edited collections in English and German, as well as in philosophy books and artists' exhibition catalogues. His current research interests include the nature of decision making in live performing, the influence of metaphors like 'performing as problem solving' on discourse about performing, the links between virtue and performing, the persistence of folk psychology in music education, and the relationships between Practice-as-Research, Research into performing, and performing.

Clare Hammond

My doctoral thesis, ‘Reinstating the sinister: Ravel, Concerto pour la main gauche and Britten, Diversions’ explores how left-hand piano technique, as developed in Leopold Godowsky’s transcriptions of Frédéric Chopin’s Etudes op. 10 and op. 25, is used to expressive, rhetorical, and dramatic effect in works for left-hand piano and orchestra by Maurice Ravel and Benjamin Britten. Both Ravel’s Concerto pour la main gauche and Britten’s Diversions were commissioned by the same pianist, Paul Wittgenstein, who had lost his right arm during the First World War. Yet the composers conceived of his disability in very different terms and this is reflected in their compositions. The importance of physical gesture and of visual perception of the performer in concert by an audience is intimately linked with the musical and social meanings which these works convey - a fact which was clearly understood by their dedicatee. Wittgenstein made extensive alterations to these works, which I explore in the final chapter of my thesis. These alterations indicate both his specific priorities as a left-hand pianist and the creative and expressive impact which disability may exert on a musical work. They reveal not only the contrasting claims of performer and composer, but also how works may be manipulated as vehicles in the formation of an artistic identity and performance persona.

Topics of interest which I have explored in researching this thesis include the significance of physical gesture in performance (both as implied in the musical score and perceived by an audience), the overlap between the creative roles of performer and composer, and the concept of musical performance as visual ‘theatre’. I feel very strongly that my performance influences my research and shapes my methodology, but I find it much more difficult to discern the impact that my research has on my playing. This is an issue which I am particularly keen to address during the seminar.

Luciana Hamond

I have been active in piano pedagogy and performance for more than 13 years. As a full time teacher at the largest state music school in Rio de Janeiro (BRAZIL), I gave instrumental lessons and trained students to entry undergraduate courses in Brazilian universities from 2003 to 2010. My previous academic training includes Bachelor in Piano (1997), Teaching Certification (2001), and Masters (2005). After completing MA in Performance Practice, I recorded a CD with 25 piano pieces by the living Brazilian Edmundo Villani-Cortes which was recently launched in Brazil (2010).

I am MPhil/PhD student in the Department of Arts and Humanities of the Institute of Education (IOE), University of London, under the guidance of Professor Graham Welch, Dr. Evangelos Himonides and Dr. Cynthia Stephens Himonides. My MPhil/PhD studies have been supported by the Brazilian scholarship CAPES since October 2010. My research subject is within the area of psychology of music, piano pedagogy and performance, and feedback using technology. My previous practical knowledge from my work experience in piano teaching, performance and studio recordings made me start thinking about the possible applications of current technology in piano classes. The aim of this research is to study how and to what extent current technology can be used as a teaching & learning strategy in order to monitor and/or enhance musical expression in piano performance practice.

The most recent pilot study which has been developed by the research team involves studying main differences and similarities in musical expression (timing) between four recordings (two world-class and two non-world-class pianists). The chosen repertoire was the Mazurka Op.17 No. 4 by Chopin and the extract was 8 measures long (left hand notes). The methodology used the two free downloadable software programs: audacity and wavesufer. Audacity was used to extract and edit the wave format of the piano recordings. Wavesufer was used to insert and label the onset notes and to make the transcriptions of notes` durations. Excel was used to bring the visual representation of the time deviations of notes (bass, chords and octaves). The results of this study will be obtained soon.

Ilona Sie Dhian Ho

The Dutch parliament has decided to cut down a large part of the governmental support for classical music. The most prominent reason is that the audience does not understand most of the concert repertoire.

The relation between classical music, its audience and the way this relationship is organized practically and financially has changed strongly over the last centuries. From a direct and simple relationship it has become complex. Has this complex organization influenced the understanding of classical music and the involvement of the audience?

Composers used to be working in a local setting (court of royal family, arch bishop etc.). Many works were commissioned. The composer had artistic freedom but must have felt limited because his position directly relied on the opinion of the person(s) who paid for his work. The opinion of the audience was resonating directly after a premiere: both the composer and the commissioner knew if the music was understood, liked. The (financial) career of a composer depended at least partly on this. Nowadays in most Western countries the decision of what is played/composed is made by artistic directors, or cultural boards appointed by the government. The audience has no direct influence on the offer. The musicians’ payment has no direct relationship with the approval of the audience.

The research I hope to undertake will be descriptive and historical. In literature I want to look for examples in which concert practice and composers were influenced by the commissionaire. Did this harm the artistic value? In interviews I would like to hear living composers opinions. How do they think to reach out for the audience? What responsibility does the conservatoire have to educate the audience?

I have presented these ideas to Professor Klamer of the Erasmus University Rotterdam. He is professor in economics and culture. He has invited me to present an idea on alternative ways to finance and organize classical music at a seminar on March 22 in Rotterdam. I want to present a concept for a local organization of classical music including a city composer.

Leslie Anne Lewis

I am a PhD student at Royal Holloway, University of London, supervised by John Rink. My research looks at what conductors can learn from the un-conducted. How conductors add value to orchestral performance is an elusive, if often asked, question. The tension and discrepancy between my own responses to this question, gathered over ten years of conducting university orchestras and choirs, and the answers provided both explicitly and implicitly by my ongoing training and review of the literature has served as a spring board for my research. Issues such as institutional support, group motivation, individual skill and talent of players, rehearsal time, and choice of repertoire all have had an enormous impact on how I enacted the role of conductor in my university posts, and I sought in my research to explore what might be gained by looking at the modern conductor’s role in a way that challenged the prevailing ideology, i.e. by going beyond the idea that the ideal conductor simply conveys a more or less pre-determined interpretation unilaterally via the orchestra.

One aspect of this greater project operates through ‘telling the story’ of my field work study with the Britten Sinfonia, a chamber orchestra with a dynamic and flexible leadership structure that is based upon the shared leadership model of chamber music performance, albeit still ‘led’ by leader, soloists, and occasionally guest conductors. Drawing upon ethnographic and social science methodology, the fieldwork exposed the orchestra, first and foremost, as a system where shared memory and thinking enable musical leadership and interpretations to emerge in response to musical and extra-musical problems. In this context, conductors are simply part of situational and repertoire-specific solutions. Simply put, a conductor might add value by offering interpretive ideas, but may also do so by providing other types of scaffolding, especially when an orchestra is faced with the complexity of new and highly complex works or limited rehearsal time. The paper concludes with a discussion of how this idea of evolving emergent leadership has changed the way I approach my own work as a conductor and teacher of conducting.

Murphy McCaleb

My research examines the role of embodied music cognition in small ensemble interaction. This involves an examination of the physical relationship between musician and instrument, the ramifications musical content has on that relationship, and the overall effects that this relationship might have on ensemble interaction. In order to approach these topics, I have applied methodologies such as observation, interview, and literature reviews within a framework of reflective practice.

As an active bass trombonist, I participate in a variety of ensembles at Birmingham Conservatoire, ranging from classical chamber groups to jazz and entirely improvised ensembles. This allows me to critically examine both how I interact with my instrument and the effect this has on the ways that I operate within various ensemble environments. The conclusions arrived at can then be critiqued through the use of the methodologies mentioned above.

My research is overseen by Prof. Peter Johnson (Birmingham Conservatoire, retired) and Prof. John Sparrow (Associate Dean, Birmingham City University School of Business), with help from Dr. Liz Garnett. In addition, I am specifically working with members of The Supergroup, an improvised ensemble of doctoral candidates, and the Boult Quartet, resident string quartet at Birmingham Conservatoire.

Sara McGuinness

I am doing a performance PhD at the School of Oriental and African Studies, an institution new to the idea of practice-based PhDs, under the encouragement and supervision of Keith Howard. My supervision has changed twice during the course of my PhD due to Keith Howard leaving for an extended sabbatical.

My practice-based research investigates the links between Congolese and Cuban music through working with professional musicians from the two genres in a performance situation. The research project grew out of my involvement in both musical worlds as a professional keyboard player, having played Latin music for 20 years and, through my research for my Masters, Congolese music for 6 years. I wanted to investigate further the musical and performance commonalities that I experienced. I also discovered that the two groups of musicians, whilst playing music that was historically linked and preserved a great deal of common ground, were physically isolated in London.

I found that my inclusion as a musician in both musical worlds gave me access and a perspective on the creation and performance of music that could not be afforded by an outsider. The research project takes the form of a band featuring musicians from the two genres. Together with band members I develop original songs and document the process through composition, arrangement, rehearsal and performance.

My PhD submission will be divided into three sections; Performance which comprises video and audio footage of a tour, and a professionally produced CD, a 40-50,000 word written document and a CDRom of musical examples and explanations which links to the text. I am a professional musician who moved into research through my professional music making activities and would welcome the opportunity to hear from practitioners with more experience of this form of research. I also believe that I can make a positive contribution as a result of my experiences.

Claire Mera-Nelson

Claire Mera-Nelson is Director of Music at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, her ninth (!) role at the institution (formerly known as Trinity College of Music) which she joined in 1999. For many years primarily a lecturer on a wide range of topics including performing practice, editorial techniques, and study skills, following the merger of Trinity with Laban, Claire became Director of Creative Futures – Trinity Laban’s centre for research, enterprise and academic enhancement – from which she led a range of research and enterprise projects investigating the roles of music and dance in modern society, alongside the institution’s curriculum development and quality enhancement activities.

Claire studied violin and Baroque violin at the with Frances Mason and Catherine Mackintosh. Until recently an active period instrument performer, Claire is a former member of the European Union Baroque Orchestra and National Youth Orchestra of Scotland, and has performed extensively in Europe, Australia and Asia with ensembles including English Touring Opera, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Florilegium, the Gabrieli Consort, the London Handel Orchestra, and in particular The Sixteen with whom she performed regularly for more than 15 years.

The recipient of grants and awards from the British Academy, British Federation of Women Graduates, Learning Skills Foundation, Leverhulme Trust, NESTA and the Scots Trust, Claire has also received research commissions from Arts Council , the Creative Way Lifelong Learning Network, the Higher Education Academy, and PALATINE. Following doctoral studies which examined the influence of Scotland (politically and socially, as well as musically) on London life in the eighteenth century, she has given conference papers in the UK, Austria and Australia on topics as diverse as the future of music education in the UK and the role of performing arts within Britain’s creative economy. Her reviews and articles have been published by Early Music and The Consort. Claire is also active as an External Examiner and Advisor, has undertaken advisory roles for the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), and is a reviewer for the Higher Education Academy’s National Teaching Fellowship Scheme.

Janet Munro

Janet Munro studied singing at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and the . As a professional singer she was a member of Kent Opera, and the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company and gave recitals and concerts in the UK and abroad as well as broadcasting on radio and TV. Since 1990 Janet has combined vocal teaching with her performing career and this increasingly takes up her time. She graduated with a BMus (Hons) in Music Education from Middlesex University and she was recently awarded a MA in Music Education from the Institute of Education. Janet has a special interest in young singers and is a member of staff at Trinity College of Music where she works in both the Senior and Junior Departments. She specializes in classical and Musical Theatre voice and is also a mentor for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music professional development course, and was a member of the consultation panel for the singing syllabus of Trinity Guildhall. Janet has recently become a Council member for the Association of Teachers of Singing and is also a member of the British Voice Association, the Association of English Singers and Speakers and the ISM.

Janet’s current research investigates vocal health in female undergraduate music theatre students. The aims of the study were to discover whether the vocal health problems that some students were experiencing were a chance occurrence or part of an underlying trend amongst Musical Theatre students.

It was difficult to decide which methodology was the most appropriate to use in a study of this nature, as there were problems concerning confidentiality of the respondents and the availability of students to complete a survey during a busy semester. There were a number of positive outcomes to the study. Partly as a result of interest generated by the study, a vocal screening programme has been put in place for classical and Musical Theatre students. The study has also provided useful insights into the Musical Theatre students’ awareness of issues, which may affect their vocal health.

John Rink

John Rink trained as a pianist alongside his academic studies at Princeton University, King’s College London, and the ; he also studied piano as a postgraduate at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where he was awarded the Premier Prix and the Concert Recital Diploma in 1982. His work as Professor of Musical Performance Studies at Cambridge, as Fellow at St John’s College, and as Director of the AHRC Research Centre for Musical Performance as Creative Practice (CMPCP; www.cmpcp.ac.uk) draws upon his broad musical and musicological experience.

John works in the fields of performance studies, theory and analysis, and nineteenth-century studies, especially Chopin and the pianos that Chopin used; he is also prominent in the field of analysis and performance, an interest first developed at Princeton, where he wrote an undergraduate thesis on ‘Analytic Process in Performance’. He regularly gives lecture-recitals and masterclasses throughout the world. John has published six books with Cambridge University Press, including The Practice of Performance: Studies in Musical Interpretation (1995), Chopin: The Piano Concertos (1997), Musical Performance: A Guide to Understanding (2002), and Annotated Catalogue of Chopin’s First Editions (with Christophe Grabowski; 2010). He is also a co-editor of Chopin Studies 2 (with Jim Samson; 2004) and the Cambridge Companion to Recorded Music (with Nicholas Cook, Daniel Leech-Wilkinson and Eric Clarke; 2009).

In addition to directing CMPCP (which is based at Cambridge in partnership with King’s College London, Oxford and Royal Holloway, and in association with the Royal College of Music and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama), John is one of four Series Editors of The Complete Chopin – A New Critical Edition, and he directs two other research projects: Chopin’s First Editions Online (funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council; www.cfeo.org.uk) and Online Chopin Variorum Edition (funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; www.ocve.org.uk). He was an Associate Director of the AHRC Research Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music (CHARM), and he currently chairs the Steering Committees of the AHRC’s ‘Beyond Text’ and ‘Landscape and Environment’ Strategic Programmes, in addition to serving on the AHRC’s Advisory Board.

John Sloboda

John currently serves in a part-time capacity as Research Professor at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, London, where he leads an interdisciplinary research programme entitled “Understanding Audiences”. This programme aims to help performers, sponsors, and teachers obtain a better mutual understanding of audiences in ways which will be directly relevant to their future work.

He is also Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of Keele, UK. He is internationally known for his work on the psychology of music, and is author of over 150 publications in this area. His first book, “The Musical Mind”, first published in 1985, is still in print, and has been translated into several other languages including Spanish.

John Sloboda is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society, and has been President of both the Psychology and General Sections of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, as well as President of the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music, where he serves on the editorial board of it's journal Musicae Scientiae. He was recipient of the 1998 British Psychological Society’s Presidents Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychological Knowledge, and in 2004 was elected to Fellowship of the British Academy. He is consultant to the AHRC Centre for Music Performance as Creative Practice. He is also a committee member of SEMPRE, and, to his knowledge, the first person working in a conservatoire to be a member of that committee.

Joanna Szalewska-Pineau

I started my PhD at the Birmingham Conservatoire having completed my ’s Degree in Piano Performance at the Music Academy in Cracow and the Advanced Postgraduate Diploma in Professional Performance at the Conservatoire. In my project I examine piano works of Karol Szymanowski from the performer’s perspective. I have chosen this topic because I had always strong inclinations towards this music and performed it on many occasions. The idea of doing such research was born from the need to synthesis my knowledge and experience, and to be able to share my findings with both researchers and practitioners.

As a pianist having spent many hours practising Szymanowski’s works, I am able to bring an intimate performer’s perspective to my research. The problem I faced at the beginning of my project was to find a vocabulary which would allow me to talk about performance issues. I draw on the concept of Poetics developed by the Polish musicologist Mieczyslaw Tomaszewski, whose theory allows access to deeper ‘dimensions’ of music such as expression, style, genre and meaning in the widest sense. On the other hand, I have discovered that my research informs also my practice: my studies into different genres and topics have a direct impact on my performance of Szymanowski’s works. Such knowledge, together with my own intuitions, and insight and experience gained through study with prominent interpreters of Szymanowski, have all made distinct contribution to my understanding of this music and my engagement with these works in performance.

For my project I have chosen Birmingham Conservatoire since it offers a rich environment for performance studies research, and both my supervisors, Peter Johnson and Ronald Woodley, specialise in this area. Additionally I have established collaboration with Polish and English pianists performing Szymanowski, including Ewa Bukojemska, Joanna Domanska and .

Marianne Tyler-Brown

My primary research (at Middlesex University, London) initially centres on specific resources collated from the Royal Academy of Music in London (RAM). In the first place I will be comparing the RAM to The Liszt Academy of Music (LAM) in Budapest Hungary. Both conservatoires are institutes of similar historical interest, representing both Capital and Country as major historical institutions celebrating the National Identity which is reflected not only through music training and performances but is also reflected by legacies left by the Royal Charter (RAM) and Ference Liszt (LAM) which still hold relevance today. The composer Zoltan Kodaly’s philosophy of music education has led me to the following quotation found in Lois Choksy’s publication The Kodály method I: comprehensive music education, (UK, Prentice Hall 1988). This has significant relevance to my research showing, it is important to consider developing good teaching practice in cello pedagogy.

“It is much more important who is the music teacher in Kisvarda than who is the director of the opera house in Budapest…for a poor director fails once, but a poor teacher keeps on failing for thirty years, killing the love of music in thirty generations of children”(Choksy 1998,1).

Not only by referring to the music teacher alongside the poor director, does the quotation allude to the quality of music teaching but the issues surrounding organisational responsibilities for teaching and producing music.

Through a detailed comparison of selected music conservatoires, investigating methods, pedagogies and organisational systems, I will ask whether any parallels and significant points of difference arise and if these may be acknowledged for future cello pedagogies and music conservatoires. Asking if my research might contribute to further understanding of how and why music conservatoires have changed, the research undertaking seeks to provide new insight into cello pedagogies, and instrumental teaching for future conservatoires, whilst also acknowledging cello teaching in other higher education music departments and in private teaching practice.

Graham Welch

Professor Graham Welch holds the Institute of Education, University of London Established Chair of Music Education and is Head of the Institute’s Department of Early Childhood and Primary Education. He is President of the International Society for Music Education (ISME), elected Chair of the internationally based Society for Education, Music and Psychology Research (SEMPRE) and past Co-Chair of the Research Commission of ISME. Current Visiting Professorships include the Universities of Queensland (Australia), Limerick (Eire), Royal College of Music (RCM) and Roehampton (UK). He is also a member of the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council¹s (AHRC). Review College for Music and has been a specialist consultant for Government departments and agencies in the UK, Italy, Sweden, USA, Ukraine, UAE, South Africa and Argentina on aspects of music, education and teacher education. Publications number over two hundred and seventy and embrace musical development and music education, teacher education, the psychology of music, singing and voice science, as well as music in special education and disability. Publications are primarily in English, but also appear in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Swedish, Greek, Japanese and Chinese.

One of his recent projects, funded by the ESRC as part of their Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP) investigated advanced musical learning in different musical genres across the lifespan.

Donald Wetherick

In 2008 two colleagues and I undertook a research project (with support from the Guildhall School Research Department) investigating the potential of ‘free improvisation’ for postgraduate music students across different disciplines (classical, jazz, leadership and music therapy). This research was presented at the Reflective Conservatoire Conference in 2009 and is currently being revised for possible publication. The research suggested that group ‘free improvisation’ had similar values for student learning as those found by Kokotsaki and Hallam (2007) in relation to other (non-improvisational) forms of active group music making – i.e. musical, personal and social values. It also hinted at some of the processes involved in the practice of group free improvisation, in particular the importance of/reasons for decisions to ‘play’ (take an initiative/prominent role) or to ‘not-play’ (follow/take a supportive role).

I would like to develop a follow up project investigating further the learning experiences of students on different programmes engaged in developing group (not solo) improvisation skills. At present I do not have a clear methodology for this in mind, but the literature review included in the research report above suggests that relatively little work has been done in this field from a cross-disciplinary perspective. The overall approach would be qualitative, aiming to identify aspects of learning and teaching related to developing group improvisation skills. The range of programmes including improvisation teaching at the Guildhall School offers an excellent population for research on this topic, as does the range and expertise of teachers on these courses. Immediate outcomes would be of interest to teaching staff in these fields, and longer term outcomes could include further more specific research methodologies or developments to the structure of teaching on a wider range of music programmes. Elisabeth Winkler Lawrence

I am a graduate, post-graduate and informal attendee of four conservatoires (Hochschule fuer Musik, Cologne; Hochschule fuer Musik und Theater, Hanover, graduated Diplom-Musikerzieher, Piano 1991; RAM, London, postgraduate Certificate Voice, 1993; Folkwang Musikhochschule, Essen,

1997-99). I am proposing to apply for a PhD at the Institute of Education, the current proposal title is ‘Digital Technologies and the Internet in the Music Teaching Studio at Conservatoire Level’.

It seems that relatively little research on the extent of digital competence and integration of technology has been undertaken within the context of teaching in a conservatoire. An investigation of the attitudes of professors and other teaching staff and a closer look at the practices within the teaching studio would inform a large part of my research.

Here is a look of some lines of enquiry:

• What are the implications of current models and critiques of online and distance learning for the music HE sector?

• What are the sector attitudes regarding accessibility and widening participation?

• How does the use of technology sit with an essentially 'oral/aural' tradition?

• Does the use of technology alter traditional aesthetics?

• Is Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) useful as both a framework and a tool for answering the above questions? (LCT has been developed by Karl Maton et. al. and builds on the theories of both Bourdieu and Basil Bernstein)