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During my time here, I organised an international conference based around my subject involving delegates from 4 continents

Emily Baines
DMus, ‘Mechanical Musical Instruments as a Source for Historical Performance’

Emily Baines
The research community at Guildhall is a really interesting place to be

Stefania Donini
PhD

Stefania Donini
I found it very beneficial to take a break from a busy teaching career to think and reflect on my teaching value, principle and strategies

Yushan Li
PGCert Performance Teaching

Yushan Li
Studying at Guildhall is really cool because you are in a setting where the arts are valued by an entire community

Natasha Mbwana
BA Performance & Creative Enterprise

Natasha Mbwana
The projects we work on are real - we are in effect constantly getting work experience

Laurie Lumley
BA Video Design for Live Performance

Laurie Lumley
Guildhall is an institution that knows it has to be connected to the outside world - that's the key thing. It's not a bubble. It has roots in the city and in the world.

Jonathan Ferrucci
Artist Diploma Piano

Jonathan Ferrucci
One minute you could be playing in the Guildhall Studio Orchestra with jazz musicians, the next you could be playing in the opera pit, then the next minute you'll be with actors doing the musical and then playing a symphony in the orchestra.

Millie Ashton
BMus Violin

Millie Ashton
I had access to people I would never have been able to meet as a young composer starting out.

Na'ama Zisser
Doctoral Composer in Residence

Na'ama Zisser
I knew about the fantastic tutoring and resources, but the friendly and stimulating environment clinched it for me.

Eden Lonsdale
BMus Composition

Eden Lonsdale
I had the opportunity to play percussion with the Guildhall Studio Orchestra which gave me the chance to learn from, and play alongside, amazing senior players, as well as to perform with the incredible Liane Carroll.

Dave Adsett
BMus Jazz Drums

Dave Adsett
At Guildhall, they don't hold your hand, but they're going to push you to become the actor that you want to be.

Daniel Adeosun
BA Acting

Daniel Adeosun
It's the scale of productions that really makes Guildhall stand out. It gets to the point where you think, wow, this is massive. In other places, you just wouldn't have that opportunity to learn on the job.

Sian Clare
BA Technical Theatre Arts (Costume)

Sian Clare
Home > About the School > Research > Funded Research Projects > Music for Social Impact

Music for social impact: practitioners’ contexts, work and beliefs

Principal investigator: Professor John Sloboda OBE, FBA (Guildhall School of Music and Drama)

Co-investigators: Professor Heidi Westerlund (Sibelius Academy, University of Arts Helsinki); Professor Geoff Baker (Royal Holloway, University of London); Dr An De Bisschop (University College Ghent); Dr Gloria Patricia Zapata Restrepo (Fundación Universitaria Juan N Corpas, Bogota)

Post-doctoral researchers: Dr Alessandro Mazzola (Guildhall School of Music and Drama); Dr Sari Karttunen (Centre for Cultural Policy Research CUPORE, Helsinki); Dr Anemone Van Zijl (University College Ghent);
Dr Juan Sebastian Rojas (Fundación Universitaria Juan N Corpas, Bogota)

Project dates: January 2020 – December 2022

Project context

There is a growing body of participatory music-making activities being offered to groups around the world defined by their social needs or deprivation, work which focuses on marginalised or excluded groups. These Socially Impactful Music Making (SIMM) Activities assist people to generate artistically valued musical outputs, while also helping them to achieve defined social goals such as inclusion, empowerment, community building, activism. As SIMM activities generally employ professional musicians as facilitator-trainers, the outcomes therefore reflect what these practitioners do in their sessions, the skills, beliefs and motivations they bring to their work, and the conditions and constraints under which they operate.

Little is formally known about these practitioners, however. Existing research is dominated by case studies of individual projects, or clusters of projects inspired by a single model. SIMM is a field in which grandiose claims are made for the social benefits of musical engagement, and where critical, including self-critical, practitioner perspectives are put in second place. Declining public resource for the arts adds to the pressure to "tell the best stories" rather than critically reflect on practice. As a result, understanding of the complexities of such work is frequently constrained and opportunities to identify problems and propose solutions are limited. To understand the value of SIMM activities and their potential, we must interrogate who is involved, and why.

Project aims

This project will provide an integrative cross-cultural analysis of the field as a whole from the perspective of the practitioners who deliver the work, undertaking a systematic in-depth analysis of SIMM practitioners, and how their backgrounds, training, and beliefs affect the way they carry out their work and assess and improve its effectiveness. Through in-depth interviews and case studies of organisations or projects across four countries (Belgium, Finland, the UK, Columbia), this project will uncover the characteristics of the SIMM practitioner. Country selection reflects locations with relevant practice to investigate, with different cultural and political contexts for SIMM, offering insights into local versus global factors.

Further details

You can read more about the announcement of the project here.

All enquiries about the project should be directed in the first place to rachel.kellett@gsmd.ac.uk.

This project is supported by funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). The Arts and Humanities investigate the values and beliefs which underpin both who we are as individuals and how we undertake our responsibilities to our society and to humanity globally. For further information on the AHRC, please visit their website. Co-funding has also been supplied by the International Platform for Social Impact of Making Music. For further information on the SIMM platform, please visit their website.