Find a supervisor

The Department of Music hosts a broad spectrum of researchers with expertise across composition, ethnomusicology, musicology, music technology, performance, psychology of music and the intersections between these fields.

Composition

Supervisors	Research interests
Professor Dorothy Ker	Composition - for instruments, voices, orchestra, mixed media, interdisciplinary collaboration; space and time in music and across disciplinary boundaries; music and mathematics; music and text; music and metaphor.
Professor Adrian Moore	Electroacoustic music composition, performance, history and analysis; composition tools for composers.
Dr Amir Konjani	Performance art, Composition and Performance design, Contemporary classical music and acoustic music, Sound installation, living sculpture, kinetic art, and spatialisation, Conceptual art, Music for media and films
Dr Will Schrimshaw	Contemporary and exploratory approaches to electronic music, sound synthesis, studio production, installation, algorithmic, interactive and audiovisual composition.

Ethnomusicology

Supervisors	Research interests
Dr Fay Hield	Musical communities; folk singing style; composition within tradition, audience and participant development through applied research.
Dr Simon Keegan-Phipps	Traditional and folk arts in contemporary societies; traditional music in the modern world; topics in popular music.
Dr Andrew Killick	Ethnographic and analytical approaches to world and popular musics; notation and transcription; Asian musics and musical theatres.

Musicology

Supervisors	Research interests
Professor Nicola Dibben	Music experienced in new media, XR and AI; music in environmentalism and science communication; contemporary popular music,  listening and subjectivity.
Professor Simon Keefe	Mozart; late 18th-Century style and aesthetics; Haydn, Beethoven; reception history and biography; 20th-Century French song; the concerto; Wagner.
Dr Andrew Killick	Theory and analysis of music beyond the Western classical tradition; new approaches to notation; world music history.
Professor Dominic Broomfield-McHugh	Musicology; Broadway and Hollywood musicals; opera studies; the classical music recording industry.
Professor Tim Shephard	Renaissance music; music and identity; music and visual culture; music patronage; music manuscripts and early music printing.

Music Technology and Sonic Arts

Supervisors	Research interests
Professor Adrian Moore	Electroacoustic music composition, performance, history and analysis; composition tools for composers.
Dr Will Schrimshaw	Interactive systems, installation, sound synthesis

Psychology of Music, Music Education and Management

Supervisors	Research interests
Professor Nicola Dibben	Cognition and emotion of music in XR, immersive technologies and new media settings.
Dr Fay Hield	Infrastructures of musical communities; audience and participant development.
Professor Stephanie Pitts	Musical participation; audience experience; extra-curricular school music; music in secondary education; music in higher education; school-university transition; lifelong engagement in music; collaborative research with arts organisations.
Professor Renee Timmers	Emotion and meaning in music; synaesthesia and cross-modal experiences of music; music and families; expression and musical communication; music for sleep and relaxation; hearing impairment and music; ensemble rehearsal and performance
Dr Jennifer MacRitchie	Research interests: Music and dementia; new musical interfaces; cognitive and motor skill acquisition in music learning; lifelong learning; gestures in performance; technology and music interaction

Music Performance 

Supervisor	Research Interests
Dr Sarah Watts	Contemporary music performance. Extended Techniques. Composer - Performer Collaboration. Performance-based projects.

The Roles of Different Types of Supervisor

Primary supervisors

Primary supervisors are the main point of contact for research students, and are responsible for communications regarding the student's progress to department and the faculty. You will meet most frequently with the primary supervisor to plan and develop your research, to receive feedback on drafts, and to determine the overall pattern of work. It is common to also discuss your training needs and doctoral development with your primary supervisor, although this may also be reserved to be discussed with the secondary supervisor.

Second Supervisors

Second supervisors are responsible for providing general support and advice as appropriate. This may relate to training needs and doctoral development, personal needs, or specific areas of expertise, such as a particular methodology. In the first month of registration the student should meet at least once with their second supervisor. In some instances, it may be appropriate for supervisory sessions to more regularly involve both primary and secondary supervisors. This is a matter of negotiation between the supervisors and the student. Progress reports are reported to both supervisors.

Joint Supervisors

Interdisciplinary research projects may be supervised by two academics who share the project supervision. In this case, supervision may alternate between involving both supervisors and having one-to-one meetings. At the end of the first semester, the supervisors and student should have negotiated how they want the supervision to be shared and set the responsibilities of each supervisor.

Next steps: Getting in contact

Once you have found a suitable supervisor, please email them directly to discuss your research proposal and to check their availability and willingness to support the application. Please choose the most suitable primary supervisor for your proposed topic: if you feel you need to contact several people, please make them aware of that in your email.

Supervisors will need to have the capacity to take on additional students and the proposal needs to fall within supervisor’s area of expertise and research interests. When contacting potential supervisors, please include your research proposal and a brief CV. The department can provide specialist support and guidance from the initial point of contact, throughout the period of study and through to completion.