Academic Work

In 2016 I returned to academia 20 years after completing my undergraduate degree. I received an MMus in Composition with distinction from the University of Southampton in 2018 and was awarded the Presidential Scholarship by the same institution to study for a PhD. I began a part-time PhD in October 2018, with a completion date of 2024.

My research interests include:

  • Ontology of improvisational works

  • The aesthetics of imperfection

  • Embodied cognition

  • The influence of digital aesthetics on live performing musicians

  • Improvisation and open score composition

  • Collaborative compositional processes

  • Groove

Academic Presentations

‘Hotwiring Grooves: Fabricating feels with experimental tools’ Innovation In Music 2025: New Beginnings: From Tabula Rasa to Rip It Up And Start Again, Bath Spa University (June 2025)

‘Dual-function Interfaces: the traditional musical instrument and/as samplers’ (with Oliver Sellwood), Innovations In Music 2024: Have you tried THIS? - Sharing the enthusiasm of new discovery, Kristiania University College, Oslo (June 2024)

‘The Digital Accomplice: The role of technology in the creation of collaborative multidisciplinary works’, AR@K24: The Artist, The Ghost, and The Machine – friction, interplay and symbiosis of art and technology, Kristiania University College, Oslo (March 2024)

Signatures, Likenesses and Signifiers: Rhythm understood within a framework for discussing digitally engaged acoustic music. Food & Paper talk, RITMO, University of Oslo (May 2023)

‘A speculative comparison of acoustic drummers’ movement profiles while performing electronic styles’, Groove Workshop (online - January 2023)

‘Accomplices: A Case Study In Improvisational Collaborative Composition’, AR@K22: Improvisation – Risks, Responses, Rewards, Kristiania University College, Oslo (March 2022)

'Digital signatures in the improvisational style of Richard Spaven', The Improviser’s Experience: Knowledge, Methodology, Communication, University of Huddersfield (March 2021 - postponed from April 2020 due to COVID-19)

[ CLICK IMAGE TO READ THIS PAPER ]‘Alternative Cycles: A Neo-Riemannian Analysis of John Coltrane’s 26-2’, SMA Music Analysis conference, University of Southampton (July 2019)

[ CLICK IMAGE TO READ THIS PAPER ]

‘Alternative Cycles: A Neo-Riemannian Analysis of John Coltrane’s 26-2’, SMA Music Analysis conference, University of Southampton (July 2019)

‘Shifting Perceptions: Repetition in Lois V Vierk’s Red Shift’, Again and Again conference, City University, London (April 2019)