Michelle Phillips

Current and Future Research

One focus of Prof Michelle Phillips’ current work is the live music experience, and how this compares to recorded or livestreamed performance. She is working on projects with interdisciplinary teams from the Universities of Manchester and Salford, and members of Manchester Camerata, to examine the live music experience using surveys, and by measuring brain and body responses.

A further part of Michelle’s work at the moment is with an international team from the Universities of Manchester, Cambridge, and Lorraine, examining whether amateur music making may lead to evidence of neural coupling. This research uses a complex hyperscanning task – scanning two brains at once and looking for evidence that the neurons may be firing at similar rates. This project seeks to explore the possibility that making music together may lead to evidence of social bonding, and that music may be a more powerful tool for this than other art forms or activities.

Another area of Michelle’s research with researchers from the University of Manchester, Exeter, and Lucerne University of Applied Arts and Sciences examines how people with Parkinson’s use music, and how this features in their everyday lives, including in relation to their symptoms.

Michelle is also working on publishing recent research on music and entrepreneurship (including barriers to access and creative skills), following the StART Entrepreneurship Project, of which she was Principal Investigator, which was awarded £902,153 from the Office for Students and Research England. She is preparing further publications on music and time, music and silence, and a project which sought to represent process of genetic mutation in a new piece of contemporary music.

Research Areas

• Music psychology
• Live music and audiences
• Music and time
• Music and Parkinson’s
• Music and entrepreneurship

External Research Roles

• Various PhD examining roles: University of Durham, University of Sheffield, University of York, University of Leeds, University of Oslo (Norway), Leiden University (The Netherlands)
• External examiner, Goldsmiths MSc Music Mind and Brain (2024 -)
• External examiner, Waterbear Music College, BA Music Business, MA Music Business (2024 -)
• External member of doctoral programmes review panel, Royal College of Music (2023)
• External Examiner (postgraduate), University of Sheffield (2021-2024)
• External Examiner (postgraduate), Open University (2019-2021)
• External Examiner (undergraduate), Bath Spa University (2018-2022)
• External assessor (undergraduate music psychology), University of Cambridge (2021)
• External PhD supervisor, University of Liverpool (music and dementia research project) (2022)
• External PhD supervisor, University of Coimbra, Portugal (music and time research project) (2020)

Research Funding

Summary: £1,043,017 funding total over the last 6 years, including the following selected projects:

• £15,098 UKRI Talent and Stabilisation Fund for research on music and hyperscanning
• £10,000 Centre for Cultural Value, University of Leeds (AHRC) for a project on behavioural, physiological and neurological responses to live and livestreamed music
• £902,153 Research England and Office for Students, ‘StART Entrepreneurship Project’

Undergraduate Teaching

Undergraduate

• Artist Development 1: sessions on Belonging, Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity, and tax and finance
• Artist Development 3: sessions on quoting, invoicing and finance
• Year 3 and 4 electives: Applied Music Psychology, Music Acoustics, Music Perception, Music and Time, mentoring of Independent Creative Projects, Professional Placement (Creative Innovators)

Postgraduate Teaching

• Postgraduate
  • Freelance Musician: sessions on quoting, invoicing and finance
  • Supervision of minor and major dissertations

• PhD supervision

Research Supervision

Current supervision of PhDs:

• Jacob Barns, The Effectiveness of Self-Compassion Inductions on Music Performance Anxiety and Musicians’ Levels of Self-Compassion
• Akiho Suzuki, Development and testing of an online practice intervention for tertiary piano students
• Dan Baczkowski, ‘How research into music perception can inform the use of the golden section as a compositional tool’
• Xiaoxiao Huo (University of Liverpool), ‘Music in eldercare and dementia care: Hit the right note: Identifying actionable strategies to engage effectively with UK Chinese communities in music-based interventions’
• Lígia Silva (University of Coimbra, Portugal), ‘The Apperception of Music’s Temporalities: Experimental Research and Musical Analysis on Listeners’ Estimates of Musical Duration’

Completed PhDs:

• Melvin Tay, ‘Re-realising opera performance for chamber ensemble’
• Jo-Yee Cheung, ‘The role of parents in the development of metacognition in children during musical learning (primary supervisor)’
• Tuula Jääskeläinen, ‘Students’ experienced workload in higher music education (ERASMUS exchange student based at RNCM for six months)’
• Keith Phillips, ‘A Neuropsychophilosophical Investigation of Musical Improvisation’

Selected Outputs

Selection of journal articles:

• Phillips, M. (2024). Women Leading Change in Assessment Calibration. The Routledge Companion to Women and Musical Leadership: The Nineteenth Century and Beyond, 23.

• Phillips, M., & Krause, A. E. (2024). 17. Audiences of the Future–How Can Streamed Music Performance Replicate the Live Music Experience?. Classical Music Futures: Practices of Innovation

• Martin, E. J., Knotts, S., Phillips, M., Weise, N., Meagher, T. R., & Barker, D. (2024). Innovative communication of molecular evolution through sound: a biological sonification concert. Evolution: Education and Outreach, 17(1), 6.

• Suzuki, A., Ginsborg, J., Phillips, M., & Franklin, Z. (2024). Developing an Online Intervention to Equip Tertiary Piano Students With Skills and Strategies for Effective Practice. Music & Science, 7. https://doi.org/10.1177/20592043241262612

• Rose, D., Stuart, F., Paolantonio, P., Köchli, S., Senn, O., Young, W., Poliakoff, E., Phillips, M., “Playlist for Parkinson’s: disseminating research findings to stakeholders via a live concert format”, Musicae Scientiae [Letter to the Editor, submitted]

• Silva, L. B., Phillips, M. E., & Martins, J. O. (2023). The influence of tonality, tempo, and musical sophistication on the listener’s time-duration estimates. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 17470218231203459.
• Poliakoff, E., Young, W., Phillips, M., Bek, J., and Rose, D., Vividness and use of imagery related to music and movement in people with Parkinson’s: a mixed-methods survey, Music & Science [in press]
• Rose, D., Poliakoff, E., Young, W., and Phillips, M. (2023), The use of music for mood and movement management among people with Parkinson’s: A mixed methods, Music & Science
• Rose, D., Hadley, R., Guerin, S., Carapellotti, A., Young, W., Phillips, M., and Poliakoff, E. (2023). ‘Levelling the playing field: the role of workshops for to explore how people with Parkinson’s use music for mood and movement management as part of a patient and public involvement strategy’, Frontiers in Rehabilitation Special Issue: Patient and Public involvement in Disability and Rehabilitation Research
• Pennill, N., Phillips, K., & Phillips, M. (2022). Student experiences and entrepreneurship education in a specialist creative arts HEI: a longitudinal approach. Entrepreneurship Education, 5(4), 399-423.
• Phillips, M., and Krause, A., ‘Preferences for live and livestreamed music performance: Is there any evidence for changes in behaviours and attitudes following the COVID-19 pandemic?’, Frontiers in Psychology [in preparation]
• Phillips, M. and Sergeant, M. (eds,) (2022). ‘Music and Time: Psychology, Philosophy and Practice’, edited collection, Boydell & Brewer
• Jääskeläinen, T., López-Íñiguez, G., and Phillips, M. (2020). ‘Music students’ experienced workload, livelihoods and stress in higher education in Finland and the United Kingdom’, Music Education Research, 22(5), 505-526.
• Phillips, M., Wilcoxson, M., Howard, E., Du Sautoy, M., Willcox, P., Jones, L., Stewart, A., and De Roure, D. (2020). ‘What musical features influence perception of section boundaries in contemporary music? A live audience study with a bespoke data capture application’, Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 1001

Selection of keynote and invited talks:

• March 2026 – keynote speaker, Dutch-Flemish Society for Music Theory

• March 2025 – Queen’s University Belfast research forum

• November 2024 – Durham University research forum

• October 2023 – Plenary Speaker and Scientific Board for MA2023, Música Analítica conference in Coimbra, Portugal

• October 2023 – Plenary Speaker and Scientific Board for MA2023, Música Analítica conference in Coimbra, Portugal
• Sept 2023 – International Orchestras Conference, Poland, talk on ‘Music and the Brain’

• June 2023 – Ivors Academy and #TheWrd one day careers event panellist

• May 2023 – University of Liverpool Music Analysis Reading Group, talk on music and maths

• May 2023 – speaker at Media City event from by UoM and the Creative Industries Network (talk on audience response to live and recorded music)

• May 2023 – Music and Parkinson’s event at Lucerne University of Applied Arts, which showcased the research I have undertaken with collaborators (one of whom is based at Lucerne)
• Mar 2023 – Grand Challenges Lecture, Keele University, ‘What Makes Live Music Special?’
• Feb 2023 – talk on audience research with Centre for Cultural Value and Manchester Camerata, Association of British Orchestras
• Jan 2023 – Panellist at Liverpool Philharmonic ‘Careers Fest’ for young people considering careers in music
• July 2022 – Panellist at Royal Philharmonic Orchestra ‘Sounds and Stadiums’ panel series during the UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 tournament UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 Arts Programme, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Panel Series 5th July 2022

Professional Activity

• October 2025 – Times Radio interview on news item about a woman living with Parkinson’s playing her clarinet during Deep Brain Stimulation open brain surgery