Guildhall School of Music & Drama

Post-Doc, Research

Other Affiliations: University of Sheffield, Music

Thesis Title: Between stalls, stage and score: An investigation of audience experience and enjoyment in classical music performance

About

At the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, I’m working with Helena Gaunt investigating the roles undertaken and qualities required by orchestral musicians in the twenty-first century. I also work with John Sloboda on the School’s Understanding Audiences research programme, where we’re currently developing pilot research exploring the potential benefits of post-concert events for artists and audiences alike. With colleagues at the Sheffield Performer & Audience Research Centre (SPARC), I am writing up articles from a knowledge transfer project with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, focusing on the concepts of loyalty and ethos in audience and performer engagement.

I read Music at King's College, London, and then completed an MA in Psychology of Music at the University of Sheffield. My PhD thesis (also at Sheffield) empirically investigated audience experience of live classical concerts: it questioned why individuals attend classical performances – and, importantly, why they don't. I explored the functions that concert-going fulfils in attenders’ lives, as well as the experiences of audience members new to classical concerts. The thesis addressed the roles of familiarity and novelty in the enjoyment of concert experience, and considered distinctive features of ‘liveness’ in classical performance (e.g. the capacity for performer spontaneity; the role of visual stimuli; and relationships between live and recorded listening). I explored the types of experiences audience members seek when they enter the concert hall and argued for a greater consideration of the agency involved in concert attendance, contrasting this perspective to a prevailing notion of 'contemplative', 'passive' listening generally associated with the classical concert.

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