The Sir John Manduell Research Forum
Hear presentations from academics, performers and composers, and engage in the exchange of ideas that follows.
The Sir John Manduell Research Forum series is open to all and admission is free. Talks usually last about an hour, including a Q&A session and are regularly followed by discussions in the bar.
See our upcoming Research Forum events in the What’s On section.
For further details or access to a recording please contact [email protected].
Summer 2026 Programme
Tuesday 28–Wednesday 29 April 2026
Postgraduate Research Students’ Conference
Lecture Theatre and Studio 8
Wednesday 20 May 2026
Eighteenth-Century Music Studies Symposium
Lecture Theatre
Wednesday 15–Friday 17 July 2026
Re/sounding Visions: Music, Sound, and the Moving Image at 20 and Sound on Screen V joint conference
Spring 2026 Programme
17:00–18:30 Wednesday 21 January 2026
Prof. Emily Howard, Royal Northern College of Music
Discussion forum on artistic research
The Lounge
16:15–17:30 Wednesday 28 January 2026
Dr Anna Détári, Royal College of Music
The Neurodivergent Musician: A Participatory Action Research Study
Studio 8
16:15–17:30 Wednesday 4 February 2026
Dr Robert Gardiner and David Bullock, Royal Northern College of Music and Olympias Music Foundation, and Bryony Simcox and George Webster, Broaden
More than Music: Global Music Teacher Training with Olympias Music Foundation
Lecture Theatre
16:15–17:45 Wednesday 18 February 2026
Prof. Wiebke Thormählen, Royal Northern College of Music, Prof. Jeanice Brooks, University of Southampton, and Sarah Cleave, Manchester Metropolitan University
Country House Legends: Imagining Unsung Voices at Erddig
Carole Nash Recital Room
18:00–18:45 Thursday 19 February 2026
Dr Nico de Villiers, Royal Northern College of Music
Book launch: Richard Hageman: The Becoming of a Song Composer
Carole Nash Recital Room
16:15–17:30 Wednesday 25 February 2026
Dr Samuel Wilson, Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Contemporary Modernisms? Some Paradoxes of Time in British New Music
Lecture Theatre
16:15–17:30 Wednesday 4 March 2026
Tebogo Monnakgotla, Örebro University
Tebogo Monnakgotla Talks about Her Compositions
Studio 8
16:15–17:30 Wednesday 11 March 2026
Prof. Jennie Henley, Royal Northern College of Music
Book launch: Inclusive Pedagogy in Music Education
Enacting Change through Inclusive Pedagogy
Lecture Theatre 2
16:15–17:30 Wednesday 18 March 2026
Dr Toby Young, Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Opera in Extended Reality
Lecture Theatre
16:15–17:30 Wednesday 25 March 2026
Dr Morag Atchison, University of Auckland
Finding an Authentic Voice in the Art Song of Aotearoa New Zealand
Studio 8
Autumn 2025 Programme
16:15–17:30 Wednesday 24 September 2025
Discussion forum (led by Dr Tom Parkinson and Dr Michelle Phillips)
Room 102
16:15–17:30 Wednesday 1 October 2025
Dr Tom Parkinson, Royal Northern College of Music
Popular Music Education as Neoliberal Discipline
Studio 7
16:15–17:30 Wednesday 8 October 2025
Prof. Wiebke Thormählen, Royal Northern College of Music
Identities and Boundaries: Musical Interactions and Cosmopolitanism beyond the City
Studio 8
16:15–17:30 Wednesday 22 October 2025
Prof. Ian Cross, Dr David Duncan, and Katya Ness, University of Cambridge
Making Space for Accuracy: Can White Space Make Music Notation Easier to Read?
Studio 8
16:15–17:30 Wednesday 12 November 2025
Discussion forum (led by Dr Austin Glatthorn)
Room 102
16:15–17:30 Wednesday 19 November 2025
Dr Kristl Kirk, University of York
Instrumental Music Teaching with Dyslexic Students: The Development of an Innovative Risk–Resilience Model
Studio 8
16:15–17:30 Wednesday 26 November 2025
Dr Winnie Huang, Conservatorio della Svizzera italiana
The Performing Body: The Site of Possibilities
Studio 5
16:15–17:30 Wednesday 3 December 2025
Discussion forum
Room 102
16:15–17:30 Wednesday 10 December 2025
Dr Michelle Assay, King’s College London and the University of Toronto
‘When Puppets Sing in Tehran’: Reconfiguring Iran’s ‘National’ Opera
Studio 8
Earlier Research Forum presentations can be viewed in our Research Forum archive.
