Centre for Music Studies

Research

The Centre for Music Studies is one of the University’s top-rated research centres, being placed in the top 15 music research establishments in the 2008 Higher Education Funding Council’s Research Assessment Exercise, and with an ‘esteem indicator’ of 100 per cent in the 4* (highest) category. This reflects research activities of the highest international quality.

With a strong research-active faculty and a lively postgraduate community, the Centre's research places an emphasis on integrating musicological and ethnomusicological approaches, and on exploring contemporary music and world culture through composition and performance.

The graduate community is one of the largest in the country, with around 40 students pursuing research or taught postgraduate degrees.

In recent years the Centre has been successful in securing several University Research Fellowships and University Studentships.

Centre for Music Studies specialisms

Recent years have seen a steady growth in the Centre's special strengths - composition, electroacoustic work, performance practice, musicology and ethnomusicology - with international recognition through publications, performances, recordings, broadcasts and conference presentations.

Other burgeoning areas of research include popular music studies, performance practice with technology, aural culture and sound as art.

All staff are not only active in their primary area of research but also in related areas of scholarship, and many research students explore cross-disciplinary areas of study.