Dr Mirjam James

Mirjam is manager of Music Education Islington - a partnership between Islington Council and the Guildhall School that works to bring a wide, varied music offer to all children and young people in the borough. Accordingly, her current research interests are primarily in areas relevant to this field: training, group teaching, and understanding barriers that prevent children and young people from accessing music education. More broadly, Mirjam’s work centres on creativity in performance, rehearsal strategies, and understanding audiences.

Mirjam holds an MA in Musicology, Psychology, and Politics and a PhD on audio-visual perception from the Technische Universität Berlin, and an MSc in Music Psychology from Keele University. She has worked as an editor for music education journals and has published songbooks with the German music publisher Carus as well as teaching systematic musicology at Bremen University and exploring musical creativity in a teaching and learning environment as Research Associate at the AHRC Research Centre for Musical Performance as Creative Practice (base at the University of Cambridge).

Mirjam’s most recent research projects focus on audience development and understanding and were conducted in collaboration with the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, while her practical work has moved further towards music education and outreach through the founding of charity ‘Music for Open Ears’. The threads of academic and practical expertise come together through Mirjam’s membership of the Institute for Social Impact Research in the Performing Arts.