Michelle Phillips

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Head of Enterprise (Academic)

BA(Hons), MA, ACA, PhD (Cantab), SFHEA, FCA

Email: [email protected]

  • Senior lecturer
  • Research in the field of music psychology (music psychology, music and live audiences, music perception, music and time, music and maths, mindfulness, music and Parkinson’s, music and entrepreneurship, representing science through music)
  • Teaching on undergraduate (music theory, music history, music psychology, music acoustics, music and time, music perception, performing contemporary music) and postgraduate (music psychology, repertoire studies) modules
  • Supervision of Masters projects
  • PhD supervision (6 current PhD students), examination and chairing

Michelle Phillips’ research explores music and the perception of time, music and maths, audience response to live and recorded music, music and entrepreneurship and music and Parkinson’s. Her edited collection entitled Music and Time: Philosophy, Psychology and Practice, co-edited by Michelle and Dr Matthew Sergeant, was published by Boydell & Brewer in June 2022. Between September 2020 and 2022, Michelle was Principal Investigator of the £902,153 StART Entrepreneurship Project, in partnership with Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and University of the Arts London (funded by the Office for Students and Research England). Michelle is Chair of the National subject association MusicHE.

Previous research projects include a collaboration with the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology which sought to effectively illustrate processes of genetic mutation through new music, and work with AHRC Creative Economies Engagement Fellow Dr Ioanna Filippidi on involuntary musical imagery in live music. Michelle is a member of the TimeLab Manchester (http://www.timelabmanchester.com/). Recent publications explore music and the golden section, perception of segmentation in contemporary music, and music and Parkinson’s. Michelle is a senior lecturer at the RNCM, and a saxophonist.

Michelle completed her PhD (funded by a Domestic Research Studentship awarded by the University of Cambridge) under the supervision of Professor Ian Cross, Centre for Music and Science, University of Cambridge, following completion of undergraduate (Music and German) and Masters studies at the University of Nottingham. Michelle’s Masters (by Research) thesis explored the role of music and musical form in contemporary Austrian literature, and was funded by the AHRB (now AHRC). Michelle has also held teaching roles at the University of Cambridge and Leeds College of Music.

Michelle has extensive experience in public engagement, and has worked with multiple museums, festivals, schools and other events and organisations. As a museum gallery consultant Michelle has worked with the Science Museum (London), the Science and Industry Museum (Manchester), and Moscow Polytechnic Museum (Russia).

Michelle gives regular presentations at national and international conferences, and reviews for leading academic journals (Psychology of Music, Music Perception) and conferences (including ESCOM, ICMPC, SMPC). She is regular invited to present at science festivals (University of Cambridge, Edinburgh Science Festival, Manchester Science Festival) and public engagement events (e.g. Institute of Physics, Science and Industry Museum ‘Lates’, Google Digital Garages).

Michelle is a professional saxophonist (http://www.equinoxsax.org.uk/) and chartered accountant on a voluntary basis with a number of organisations, including King’s Junior Voices in Cambridge.(http://www.kingsjuniorvoices.org/home).

Twitter handle: @___Michelle____

Current and Future Research

Current research on music and entrepreneurship, audience response to live and recorded music, music and Parkinson’s, music and time, music and maths, music performance anxeity (beta blockers and mindfulness), and music and science.

RECENT CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS, INVITED AND PUBLIC TALKS

• Jul 2022 – AdvanceHE annual Teaching and Learning Conference Teaching in the spotlight: Where next for enhancing student success?, Northumbria University, Newcastle [invited panellist, forthcoming]
• Jun 2022 – Panel as MusicHE Chair at British Academy Summer Showcase, with co-chairs from DanceHE and DramaHE, Fatima’s next job could be in anything (and she’s doesn’t even need to retrain!) [accepted, forthcoming]
• Jun 2022 – Panel on Music and Silence (with Pam Burnard, Matthew Sergeant, Tal-Chen Rabinowitch, Nick Sorensen and Satinder Gill), International Conference on Music Since 1900, Birmingham Conservatoire [accepted, forthcoming]
• Mar 2022 – ‘Audience response to live and recorded music’, RNCM Research Forum [invited speaker, forthcoming]
• Feb 2022 – NERUPI event on ‘Access and Widening Participation in the Creative and Performing Arts’invited panellist on arts, entrepreneurship, society and freelance careers [invited speaker]
• Nov 2021 – ‘The creative arts entrepreneur: Training students for a post-COVID arts industry’, RNCM Research Forum (with co-authors Dr Nicola Pennill and Dr Keith Phillips)
• Nov 2021 – ‘Experiences of live vs online performance​ &​ The StART Entrepreneurship Project’, Newland Lecture in Music (University of Hull)
• Oct 2021 – ‘Preparing entrepreneurial freelance musicians: Placements, Partners, Projects and Prize’, Institute of Small Business and Entrepreneurship Conference 2022 (University of Cardiff) (with co-author Hannah McCabe)
• Sept 2021 – ‘A cross-discipline and cross-institutional approach to entrepreneurship in the creative industries’, International Entrepreneurship Education Conference (IEEC) (with co-authors Jessica Bowles, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, and Marcus O’Dair, University of the Arts London)
• July 2021 – ‘A survey investigating the use of music, musical and motor imagery, for mood and movement management among people with Parkinson’s’, International Conference for Music Perception and Cognition (ICMPC), University of Sheffield (with co-authors Dawn Rose, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Lucerne, Switzerland, Will Young, University of Exeter, Ellen Poliakoff, University of Manchester) [poster]
• July 2021 – ‘Audience attitudes and behaviours to live and streamed music performance during the COVID-19 pandemic’, International Conference for Music Perception and Cognition (ICMPC), University of Sheffield
• July 2021 – ‘Preparing graduates for the industry of the future’ International Conference for Music Perception and Cognition (ICMPC), University of Sheffield (with co-authors Dr Nicola Pennill and Dr Keith Phillips)
• April 2021 – ‘Audiences of the future – how can streamed music performance replicate the live music experience?’ Maastricht Centre for the Innovation of Classical Music (MCICM) Annual Conference on the theme of ‘Borderlands: Classical Music and Society’
• April 2021 – ‘Socially distanced work experience in a Music degree programme’, Advance HE VirtualEmployability Symposium 2021: 3E’s for Wicked Problem (with co-author Hannah McCabe)
• Nov 2019 – ‘Time changes in experiences of music and dance’ symposium, Hamburg, 28-30th Nov 2019 [invited speaker]
• Nov 2019 – Leeds Music Research Colloquium and NeMUR one day symposium, University of Leeds, 7 November 2019 [keynote]
• Sept 2019 – New Models of Psychological Time are Needed to Account for Structural Coherency of Events, European Society for Cognition and Perception, Tenerife, 25-28 Sept 2019 [invited panellist]
• Sept 2019 – Music and Time: Psychology, Philosophy, and Practice (Roundtable discussion) (convened by Michelle Phillips and Matthew Sergeant), RNCM and University of Manchester, Manchester, UK, 11-13 Sept 2019, 55th Royal Musical Association Annual Conference
• Sept 2019 – Music Between Heartbeats, RNCM and University of Manchester, Manchester, UK, 11-13 Sept 2019, 55th Royal Musical Association Annual Conference, Michelle Phillips, Larry Goves, Kathryn Williams
• Sept 2019 – Music and Mutation, Interact 2019,  An Engagement Symposium for the Physical and Life Sciences, Wednesday 4th September 2019 at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN) in Preston, Lancashire. 
• Aug 2019 – Students’ Experienced Workload in Higher Music Education: A Mixed Method Systematic Review, Michelle Phillips and Tuula Jääskeläinen, ISPS 2019 (Melbourne)
• Jul 2019 – Hacking the live music earworm (co-author: Ioanna Filippidi), University of Sheffield, Sheffield, Audience Research in the Arts Conference, SPARC (Sheffield Performer and Audience Research Centre), 3-5 July 2019
• Apr 2019 – Again & Again conference, 25th April 2019, City, University of London, Notions of Repetition in the Music of Morton Feldman (co-author: Bryn Harrison)

External Research Roles

  • External Examiner (postgraduate), University of Sheffield (2021-)
  • 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)
  • Writer and director of ‘Good Vibrations’, a show about music and mathematics staged as an RNCM Family day (2016) and as part of the University of Cambridge Science Festival (2010 and 2011)

 

 

Research Funding

  • AHRC Creative Economies Engagement Fellowship (Jan – Jun 2019) (academic lead)
  • Experiments relating to music and mindfulness supported by the University of Manchester
  • PhD supported by full Domestic Research Studentship awarded by the University of Cambridge
  • MA (by Research) supported by full AHRB (now AHRC) scholarship
  • Science Museum London ‘Live Science’ residency supported by SEMPRE

Undergraduate Teaching

Year 1: Music Theory 1, Music Culture and Performance 1

Year 2: Music Theory 2, Music Culture and Performance 2 (music post 1945)

Years 3 and 4: Performing Contemporary Music, Music Acoustics, Applied Music Psychology, Music and Time, Music Perception, dissertation

Postgraduate Teaching

  • Music Research in Practice (Music Psychology)
  • Major Project
  • Minor Project
  • Repertoire Studies
  • PhD supervision

Research Supervision

Current supervision of five PhDs at RNCM:

  • Jo-Yee Cheung: The role of parents in the development of metacognition in children during musical learning (primary supervisor)
  • Jen Hartley: Critical Creativity: listening to and composing new music (secondary supervisor)
  • Alexander Webb: Can British Light Music of the 50’s – 70’s (in particular the music of Ernest Tomlinson) be presented for a modern audience through wind orchestra and brass band? (primary supervisor)
  • Molly Marsh: Psychological wellbeing in performing musicians: Exploring the role that education can play in reducing music performance anxiety (MPA) (primary supervisor)
  • Tuula Jääskeläinen: Students’ experienced workload in higher music education (ERASMUS exchange student based at RNCM for six months)

Selected Outputs

    Journal Articles

  • Rose, D., Hadley, R., Guerin, S., Carapellotti, A., Young, W., Phillips, M., & 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.
  • Jääskeläinen, T., López-Íñiguez, G., & Phillips, M. (2023). Music students’ experienced workload in higher education: A systematic review and recommendations for good practice. Musicae Scientiae.
  • Phillips, M., & Krause, A. (2022). Audiences of the future – how can streamed music performance replicate the live music experience?. Futuring Classical Music (MCICM).
  • Phillips, M., Stewart, A., Wilcoxson, J., Jones, L., Howard, E., Willcox, P., Du Sautoy, M., & De Roure, D. (2020). What Determines the Perception of Segmentation in Contemporary Music?. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 1001.
  • Jääskeläinen, T., López-Íñiguez, G., & 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.
  • (2019). Rethinking the Role of the Golden Section in Music and Music Scholarship. Creativity Research Journal. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2019.1651243
  • (2014). A Discussion of the Effect of Musical Context on Perception of Succession of Musical Events, and its Relevance for Philosophical Models of Temporal Experience. Empirical Musicology Review, 9(3-4), 230-235.
  • Phillips, M., & Cross, I. (2011). About musical time – effect of age, enjoyment, and practical musical experience on retrospective estimate of elapsed duration during music listening. Lecture Notes in Computer Science Time and Time Perception 2010, 6789, 125-136.

    • Conference Contributions

  • Weise, N., & Phillips, M. Music and Mutation given at  New Scientist LIVE!, ,  14th March 2022
  • Phillips, M., & Krause, A. The post COVID-audience – attitudes and behaviours around live and streamed performance given at  Internet Musicking: Popular Music and Online Cultures, ,  May 2022
  • Phillips, M., Sergeant, M., Sorenson, N., & Burnard, P. Music and silence [conference panel] given at  International Conference on Music Since 1900, Birmingham,  June 2022
  • Pennill, N., Phillips, K., & Phillips, M. Preparing graduates for the industry of the future given at  International Conference for Music Perception and Cognition (ICMPC), University of Sheffield, Sheffield,  July 2021
  • Audience attitudes and behaviours to live and streamed music performance during the COVID-19 pandemic given at  International Conference for Music Perception and Cognition (ICMPC), Sheffield,  July 2021
  • Rose, D., Poliakoff, E., Young, W., & Phillips, M. A survey investigating the use of music, musical and motor imagery, for mood and movement management among people with Parkinson’s [poster] given at  International Conference for Music Perception and Cognition (ICMPC), Sheffield,  July 2021
  • Phillips, M., Bowles, J., & O’Dair, M. A cross-discipline and cross-institutional approach to entrepreneurship in the creative industries given at  International Entrepreneurship Education Conference (IEEC), ,  September 2021
  • Phillips, M., & McCabe, H. Preparing entrepreneurial freelance musicians: Placements, Partners, Projects and Prize given at  Institute of Small Business and Entrepreneurship Conference (ISBE), ,  October 2021
  • Goves, L., Phillips, M., & Williams, K. Music for the Silences between Heartbeats: An Embodied Creative Collaboration given at  Royal Musical Association 55th Annual Conference, Manchester,  12th September 2019
  • Phillips, M., Sergeant, M., Redhead, L., Jones, L., Connor, A., & Smith, J. Music and Time: Psychology, Philosophy and Practice given at  Royal Musical Association 55th Annual Conference, Manchester,  13th September 2019
  • Music and time – event structure matters given at  Time changes in experiences of music and dance, Hamburg, Germany,  29th November 2019
  • New models of psychological time are needed to account for structural coherency of events given at  European Society for Cognitive Psychology (ESCoP), Tenerife,  28th September 2019
  • Phillips, M., & Harrison, B. Notions of repetition in the late work of Morton Feldman given at  Again & Again, London,  25th April 2019
  • Calibrating academic standards given at  Protecting the value of qualifications conference (AdvanceHE), London,  22nd May 2019
  • Phillips, M., & Weise, N. Music and mutation given at  Interact 2019 – An Engagement Symposium for the Physical and Life Sciences, Preston,  4th September 2019
  • Filippidi, I., & Phillips, M. Hacking the live music earworm given at  SPARC Audience Research in the Arts conference, Sheffield,  5th July 2019
  • Phillips, M., Wilcoxson, M., Howard, E., du Sautoy, M., Willcox, P., & de Roure, D. What musical features influence perception of section boundaries in contemporary music? A live audience study with a bespoke data capture app given at  ICMPC/ESCOM10, Graz, Austria,  27th July 2018
  • Phillips, M., & Jones, L. Is music a special case in time perception? given at  Troubling Time: An Exploration of Temporality in the Arts, Manchester,  2nd June 2017
  • How can a performer shape experience of time for an audience? given at  Making Time in Music, Oxford,  13th September 2016
  • Towards a combined theory of psychological time during music listening and dynamic attending theory given at  ESCOM 2014, Manchester,  21st August 2015
  • Why large scale mathematical patterns in music are unlikely to be heard, using the golden section as an example given at  RMA Study Day, Music and Mathematics, Leeds,  12th April 2014
  • Phillips, M., Marin, M., & Glowinski, D. Conference co-leader given at  Systematic Musicology 2013, Genoa, Italy,  
  • Phillips, M., Knight, S., & Rabinowitch, T. Conference co-leader given at  Systematic Musicology 2010, University of Cambridge, Cambridge,  
  • Phillips, M., & Cross, I. Conference poster: Effect of increased musical chunks on sense of elapsed duration given at  40th Anniversary Conference: Society for Education, Music and Psychology Research (SEMPRE), London,  14th – 15t
  • Phillips, M., & Cross, I. Conference paper: The role of factors associated with emotion in experience of elapsed duration during music listening given at  Society for Music Perception and Cognition Biennial Meeting, Toronto,  8th August 2
  • Leader for conference discussion group given at  The Inaugural Nordoff Robbins Plus Research Conference, 20th September 2013, London,  
  • Conference paper: Perception of large-scale structure given at  40th Anniversary Conference: Society for Education, Music and Psychology Research (SEMPRE), 14h – 15th September 2012, London,  14th Septemb
  • Phillips, M., & Cross, I. Conference poster: The effect of engagement of working memory during music listening on estimate of elapsed duration given at  ICMPC-ESCOM, 23rd-28th July 2012, Greece,  24th July 20
  • Phillips, M., & Cross, I. Conference poster: The effect of musical segmentation on retrospective verbal estimate of elapsed duration given at  Time and the Conscious Brain Symposium, 31st October – 2nd November 2011, Delmenhorst, Germany,  31st October
  • Conference paper: Problems in Proportion – why conceptual mathematical structuring of large-scale musical form lacks a perceptual counterpart given at  Summer Workshop on Music, Pattern and Mathematics, East Sussex,  10th August
  • Phillips, M., & Cross, I. Conference poster: The musical time warp – psychological time and elapsed duration during music listening given at  International Conference of Music Perception and Cognition 2010 (ICMPC), Seattle,  26th August
  • Phillips, M., & Cross, I. Conference poster: Expecting a call? Psychological time and elapsed duration during music listening – a ringtone study given at  CIM-SEMPRE Study Day for postgraduate students, Sheffield,  22nd July 20
  • Conference paper: The golden section – seen but not heard? given at  Music and Numbers Conference, Canterbury,  14th May 201
  • Conference paper: Music’s golden section – an empirical approach given at  2nd International Conference of Students of Systematic Musicology, Ghent,  18th Septemb
  • Conference paper: The danger of performance, a 21st century golden sectionism given at  SMA Annual Theory and Analysis Graduate Students (TAGS) Conference, Durham,  2nd May 2009
  • given at  , ,  

    • Edited Books

  • Phillips, M., & Sergeant, M. (Eds.) . (2022) Music and Time: Psychology, Philosophy, Practice. Boydell & Brewer.

    • Chapters in Books

  • Phillips, M., & Bloxham, S. (2023). The usefulness and effectiveness of a sector-wide workshop discussing calibration of degree standards in relation to music performance [in press] In L. Hamer., & H. Minors.(Eds.) . Routledge.
  • Phillips, M., & Podgorski, A. (2023). Entrepreneurial education for creative industries higher education students: Benefits and best practice for online learning [in press] In Progress in Entrepreneurship Education and Training: New Methods, Tools, and Lessons Learned from Practice . Springer.
  • Phillips, M., & McCabe, H. (2022). Socially distanced work experience in a music degree programme In S. Norton., & A. Penaluna.(Eds.) 3 Es for Wicked Problems: Employability, Enterprise, and Entrepreneurship: Solving Wicked Problems . Advance HE.

    • Talks, Workshops and Masterclasses

  • Access and Widening Participation in the Creative and Performing Arts Programme [invited panellist] , NERUPI, ,
  • Experiences of live vs online performance​ &​ The StART Entrepreneurship Project [invited speaker] , Newland Lecture in Music, Hull, November
  • The creative arts entrepreneur: Training students for a post-COVID arts industry [invited talk] , RNCM Research Forum, RNCM, Manchester, November
  • Perception of time during music listening – event structure matters , Leeds University Music Research Colloquium, Leeds, 7th November 2019
  • Music perception – time and structure , University of Manchester Research Forum, Manchester, 3rd May
  • , , ,

Professional Activity

  • Academic Lead on the HEA Calibrating Degree Standards in Music Higher Education Performance Assessment project (hosted by CUK, RNCM, HEA) (February 2017)
  • Member of National Association for Music in Higher Education (NAMHE) committee since January 2014 (elected position), and Treasurer since 2018.

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