Staff Research

David Fennessy (b.1976, Ireland) is a composer based in Glasgow who teaches composition at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. His music is performed regularly by ensembles and orchestras both home and abroad and has been recorded on the NMC, Naxos and Ensemble Modern labels. 

He is published in Vienna by Universal Edition.

Visit David’s Pure Profile.

Dr Laura Bissell is a writer, academic, and performance-researcher. She is Interim Head of Contemporary Performance Practice/Lecturer in Research at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Laura has a PhD in Feminism, Technology and Performance and has presented her research nationally and internationally. Laura’s poetry, creative writing and articles have been published in journals and anthologies and she has three books coming out in 2021.

Visit Laura’s Pure profile.

Stephen Broad is an islander in exile, researcher, teacher, community conductor and occasional broadcaster. He studied at the Music School of Douglas Academy (Piano with Anne Crawford and composition with William Sweeney) and then at the University of Glasgow, where he won prizes in music and physics. He undertook a DPhil in Historical Musicology at Worcester College, Oxford with the late Robert Sherlaw Johnson and with Annegret Fauser, and is Head of Research and Knowledge Exchange at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

Visit Stephen’s Pure profile.

Colin Broom is a composer based in Scotland, UK. He studied composition at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama.

Colin is Jazz Coordinator at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and teaches both in the Composition and Creative & Contextual Studies departments.

Visit Colin’s Pure profile.

Oliver is a Lecturer in the Composition Department at the RCS. He has written a wide variety of works for many professional, amateur, youth and theatre organisations, which have been broadcast and performed around the world, and is interested in developing new environments for new music, collaborating with other artists and organisations to find ways to communicate to new audiences.

Visit Oliver’s Pure profile

Born and raised in Alaska, Josh arrived in Scotland in 1992 to study Scottish Gaelic at the University of Aberdeen (MA, 1996). He then undertook doctoral research in the history of the piping tradition of the southern Outer Hebrides at the School of Scottish Studies, University of Edinburgh (PhD, 2001).

Visit Joshua’s Pure profile.

Emily Doolittle is a composer and researcher with an ongoing interest in the relationship between human music and animal songs, which she explores through music, writing, and in interdisciplinary collaborations with scientists. Other research interests include environmental activism through the arts, interdisciplinarity, music and gender, musical storytelling, and folklore. Originally from Canada, Doolittle has been an Athenaeum Research Fellow and Lecturer in Composition at RCS since 2017. 

Visit Emily’s Pure profile.

Rachel is a freelance musician and researcher working predominantly in the field of music education and psychology. She is the creator and composer of BabyO and SensoryO, two groundbreaking operas for infants aged between 6 and 36 months, for which she has received international acclaim.

Visit Rachel’s Pure profile.

Laura González’s work falls between medical humanities, psychoanalysis, performance and Eastern thought. She has written on the seductive qualities of a lemon squeezer, is the author of ‘Make Me Yours: How Art Seduces’ and has published chapters on inter-semiotic translation, her maternal line and madness. She is writing a book on hysteria, translating Freud’s case histories into performance and exploring the dramaturgical potential of breath.

Visit Laura’s Pure profile.

Roy Howat studied at the RSAMD and Cambridge University, where his doctorate formed the basis of his 1983 book Debussy in proportion. He combines international concert performance with research, notably in musical structure, performing and editorial issues. Other publications include critical editions of major works by Debussy, Fauré, Chopin and Chabrier, the book The Art of French Piano Music, and chapters in numerous other books.

Visit Roy’s Pure profile.

Linda Buckley is an Irish composer whose work is often concerned with exploring connections between electronic and acoustic sound sources, with mixed media collaboration being a major aspect of her practice. She holds a PhD from Trinity College Dublin and was a Fulbright Scholar at New York University.

Visit Linda’s Pure Profile

Angela Jaap completed her PhD at the University of Glasgow with research into the recognition and development of musical talent. Her role at RCS is largely within the initial teacher education programmes where she has responsibility for leading teacher education and professional learning. Angela has published in peer reviewed education and music education journals and presented at national and international conferences. Her research interests lie primarily within arts education and professional learning and enquiry for teachers.

Jill holds a PhD in Music Psychology from the University of Edinburgh and has extensive experience as an educator and piano accompanist. She has published research and peer reviewed articles in academic journals, alongside presenting her work at national and international conferences.  Current research interests include the impact of music in education, wellbeing and in the social world.

Visit Jill’s Pure profile.

Arnold Myers completed his doctorate at the University of Edinburgh with research into acoustically based techniques for taxonomic classification of brass instruments. He has worked in parallel as an information scientist and as Curator and Director of Edinburgh University Collection of Historic Musical Instruments. He is now a Professor Emeritus in the University of Edinburgh and Senior Research Fellow at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

Visit Arnold’s Pure profile.

Allan Neave studied at the RSAMD (1984) and the RNCM (1988) and since then has been performing worldwide. He is a regular guest at many of the worlds leading musical events and has worked with many influential musicians including Nikita Koshkin, Edward McGuire, Hans Werner Henze, Gordon McPherson and Stephen Dodgson.

Visit Allan’s Pure profile.

 Ailie is a multi-award-winning Scottish composer/harpist who has been commissioned by some of the world’s most prestigious cultural institutions including BBC Proms, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Bang on a Can, Cappella Nova, Exaudi and the Riot Ensemble. She is currently composer-in-residence with Sound Festival and Glyndebourne Orchestra. She was awarded the “Achievement in New Music” prize at the Scottish Awards for New Music.

Visit Ailie’s Pure profile

David Watkin is fascinated by the interplay between the harmonic and decorative layers in tonal music. His recording of the Bach Suites won both Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine Awards. He revived the C18th cellists’ technique of improvised chordal accompaniment and wrote about this in relation to Corelli (Early Music). He explored C19th HIPP with the Eroica Quartet and CUP published his “Beethoven and the Cello”.

Visit David’s Pure profile

Since settling in the United Kingdom in 1984, Aaron Shorr has established an international career as soloist, chamber musician and educator. As well as appearing as soloist at London’s South Bank in over thirty concertos, he has toured extensively as a recitalist and chamber musician worldwide.

Visit Aaron’s Pure profile.

Marc Silberschatz holds a PhD from the University of St Andrews and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and an MA with Distinction in Classical and Contemporary Text (Directing). Since 2004, he has directed twenty-five productions in New York, Scotland and England.

Visit Marc’s Pure profile.

Smith studied at Berklee, USA with financial assistance from Sean Connery; has recorded over thirty solo albums; toured 50+ countries; composed over 300 works; collaborated with poet laureates and visual artists; holds a Professorship; three Doctorates (Heriot-Watt, Glasgow Caledonian, Edinburgh Universities); awards from the BBC, British, UK Parliament, Scottish Jazz; and an OBE for services to jazz and education from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Visit Tommy’s Pure profile.

Dr J Simon van der Walt is a composer and Head of MMus at the Conservatoire. His artistic research inhabits a broad span of work, ranging from score-based composition to installation, sound art, and devised musiktheater. Current preoccupations include Indonesian gamelan music, live coding in SuperCollider, and reconstructing the career of his fictional alter ego Edward ‘Teddy’ Edwards, unsung hero of British light music electronica.

Visit Simon’s Pure profile.

Bethany’s research focuses on the cultural and social analysis of participatory dance and dance organisations, often through ethnographic means. Since 2015, research activity has been closely tied to the Engagement work of Scottish Ballet, focused in two areas: a) Dance for Health, working with dancers with dementia, multiple sclerosis, and Parkinson’s, and b) education opportunities for professional ballet and contemporary company dancers in the UK.

Visit Bethany’s Pure profile.

Sarah Hopfinger is a lecturer in Contemporary Performance Practice at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She is a practitioner-researcher with specialisms in performance and ecology, intergenerational practice and chronic pain performance. Her practice sits between theatre, live art and choreography and her practice-led research explores how performance can engage with the ecological. She devises new performance works with diverse collaborators including children and adults, disabled and non-disabled people and professional and nonprofessional performers.

Sarah has presented her performance work and research both in the UK and internationally, published several peer-reviewed publications in leading performance journals including RiDE and Performance Research, and presented at national and international conferences.

Visit Sarah’s Pure profile.

Dr Fabrice Fitch is a composer and musicologist specializing in Renaissance polyphony and its performance. His monograph Johannes Ockeghem: Masses and Models (Paris, 1997) remains the only full-length book in English on the composer. He is a member of the editorial boards of Early Music and the Journal of the Alamire Foundation, and has been a reviewer with Gramophone for over 25 years.

Visit Fabrice’s Pure profile. 

Dr Stuart MacRae is a Senior Research Fellow and Lecturer in Composition at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Recent concert works include Courante, written for The Dunedin Consort and premiered at the 2019 BBC Proms, and Prometheus Symphony for two singers and orchestra, premiered at the 2019 Lammermuir Festival.

Visit Stuart’s Pure profile. 

Charlotte Gilmore is an Athenaeum Leadership Fellow at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Her area of interest is the cultural and creative industries and she has researched extensively within music industry, particularly within contemporary classical music and the indie music scenes. She has also explored artistic and organizational practices within a number of artistic collective and visual arts communities, in addition to advertising and design agencies. Charlotte’s work has been published in Work Employment and Society, Human Relations, Management Learning, British Journal of Management, and she co-edited Organising Music: Theory, Performance and Practice [Cambridge Press].

Visit Charlotte’s Pure profile. 

Alistair MacDonald’s research explores ideas of estrangement and resistance through composition and performance using field recording, live audio processing and interactive systems. Much of his work is collaborative and takes the form of standalone electroacoustic works, fixed compositions for instruments, improvisations with musicians from a number of genres, film, dance and gallery installation.

Visit Alistair’s Pure profile 

Lois Fitch, Assistant Principal

Visit Lois’s Pure profile

Dr Janet K. Halfyard (more commonly known as Steve) is Head of BMus programmes at RCS. Her research is mainly focused on music in horror/ supernatural and superhero film and TV, and publications include Danny Elfman’s Batman: a film score guide (Scarecrow Press, 2004), Sounds of Fear and Wonder: Music in Cult TV (IB Tauris, 2016) and the edited collections Music, Sound and Silence in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Ashgate, 2010) and Music in Fantasy Cinema (Equinox, 2012). Music, Sound and Silence in Buffy the Vampire Slayer was awarded the Whedon Studies Association’s ‘Long Mr Pointy’ for the best book in Whedon Studies in 2010, and the chapter on music in Buffy in Sounds of Fear and Wonder won the ‘Short Mr Pointy’ for 2016.

Visit Janet’s Pure Profile 

Robert is the founder and artistic director of the new music ensemble, Red Note, where he is very active in the producing, funding and performing of new music in Scotland and in a wider context in Europe. R performs extensively as a solo cellist and as a recitalist with both piano and guitar and has recorded 5 CDs in this capacity over recent years. He is a member of the Da Vinci piano trio, performing widely in Scotland, England and in Europe.

Visit Robert’s Pure profile

Joint Head of BEd (Music) Programme

Visit John’s Pure Profile 

Fali Pavri enjoys a busy and varied career as soloist, chamber musician and teacher. Born in Mumbai, India, where his first teacher was Shanti Seldon, he studied the piano at the Moscow Conservatoire with Professor Victor Merzhanov and at the Royal Academy of Music, London with Christopher Elton.

Visit Fali’s Pure Profile 

Karen combines three roles as librarian, musicologist & educationalist.  She has curated music materials at RCS since 1988, initially as Music and Academic Services Librarian and since 2017 as Performing Arts Librarian. She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals.

Karen’s PhD is in Music, from the University of Glasgow (2009). Her book, Our Ancient National Airs: Scottish Song Collecting from the Enlightenment to the Romantic Era, was published by Ashgate in 2013.

Visit Karen’s Pure Profile

Brianna is a Lecturer in Historically Musicology and has a particular interest in the field of historically informed performance and eighteenth-century studies. She completed her PhD research on the 18th-century castrato singer Venanzio Rauzzzini and his students funded by the University of Glasgow College of Arts Internship scholarship in 2016. Brianna is Research Associate for the AHRC funded project ‘The edited collection of Allan Ramsay’ and is Research Assistant for the Royal Society of Edinburgh funded Romantic National Song Network. She was also part of the team who established the Royal Society of Edinburgh funded network Eighteenth-century Arts Education Research Network. She is on the board of the British Society of Eighteenth-century Studies and is the Music editor for BSECS Criticks and she is the pblicity officer for the Women’s Studies Group 1558-1837.

Visit Brianna’s Pure Profile.

Jess Thorpe is a part-time Lecturer in the Arts in Justice at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland where she designs and delivers creative projects in prisons and with communities affected by crime. She is a founder and trustee of Justice and Arts Scotland (formally SPAN) an organisation dedicated to developing creative work in Scottish prisons and post-release.

Visit Jess’ Pure Profile.

Dr Andy Dougan is a lecturer on the BA Filmmaking course at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. He joined what was then the BA Digital Film and Television course at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Dance (RSAMD) in January 2004. He has a PhD (The development of the audience for early film in Glasgow before 1914, University of Glasgow) and a BSc, also from the University of Glasgow. He also has a Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Arts Education and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Before joining the RSAMD Andy had a successful career as an award-winning journalist and broadcaster and a best-selling author. His reviews, features, and broadcasts have appeared on media platforms all over the world.

Visit Andy’s Pure Profile.