I work on musical performance as human practice through both theoretical and original empirical research. Project to date include studies involving expert classical North Indian duos, jazz and free improvisers, and western classical ensembles and conductors. I’m particularly interested in the ethical and inclusive possibilities of 4E (embedded, extended, embodied, enactive) cognition when this approach is brought to bear on the study of musical performance.
In teaching and learning, I have developed courses and curricula that reflect issues that I’ve come to understand through my research: to do with the role of conventional music literacy in HE and music scholarship, access and opportunity in music education; and concerning critical approaches to scientific and public discourse around music. I teach various core and elective courses, and supervise a number of postgraduate students. I’m interested in reflective and arts-based methods for teaching and learning, and have developed these within hybrid models of HE course design.
Before joining Music at Edinburgh in 2007, I gained degrees in music at City University London/GSMD, University of Cambridge, and Open University. During this time I studied classical viola and North Indian sitar performance (Gerry Farrell, Mehboob Nadeem, Pt. Arvind Parikh). These days, I play with various local ensembles and friends including Edimpro, Something Smashing, and Orchestra of the Canongait. I enjoyed talking about my current and past musical life recently for an episode of the University’s podcast, Sharing Things.
I'm currently President for the Society for Interdisciplinary Musicology (SIM) 2022-4, and an Editorial Board member of Musicæ Scientiæ, the journal of ESCOM (European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music). I recently completed a term as co-Chair of the RSE Young Academy of Scotland (YAS), a national organisation which connects its members across professions to collaborate on interdisciplinary projects to initiate positive social change across Scotland, the UK and internationally. I am on sabbatical leave during Semester 2, 2021-2.
