Researcher

Dr Kim Burwell

My Expertise

music studio teaching, piano performance, higher music education

Keywords

Fields of Research (FoR)

Music, Music education, Music performance

Biography

My interests are related to musical performance skills, knowledge and acquisition. 

My monograph, Studio-based instrumental learning, is part of the Psychology of Music series sponsored by the Society for Education and Music Psychology Research (SEMPRE). I have also published research studies investigating teaching and student behaviour in instrumental lessons, and student approaches to individual practice.

Current supervisions include work on...view more

My interests are related to musical performance skills, knowledge and acquisition. 

My monograph, Studio-based instrumental learning, is part of the Psychology of Music series sponsored by the Society for Education and Music Psychology Research (SEMPRE). I have also published research studies investigating teaching and student behaviour in instrumental lessons, and student approaches to individual practice.

Current supervisions include work on music performance anxiety, and jazz pedagogy. I have supervised a range of postgraduate studies, including the life and work of Pierre Sancan, piano memorisation, advanced practice skills, theoretical and professional literature related to the studio, and feminist pedagogy in music. 

After completing my first degree in Australia, I studied piano with Ronald Smith, and performed particularly as an accompanist and chamber musician, in UK, Canada and the Middle East. With further degrees in composition and performance, I completed my PhD with a thesis investigating instrumental teaching and learning in Higher Education. As a lecturer at Canterbury Christ Church University, I established and led undergraduate and postgraduate courses in music performance and pedagogy, before coming to UNSW to establish the specialist BMus pathway in music studio teaching.  

 


My Qualifications

PhD, MA (University of Kent at Canterbury, UK); BMus (University of Durham, UK); FTCL (Trinity College of Music London), DSCM (Newcastle Conservatorium of Music), LMusA (Australian Music Examinations Board).


My Research Activities

Much of my research has been empirical, investigating studio lesson behaviours and student approaches to practice through filmed observations, interview and questionnaire studies. I have become increasingly interested in more theoretical aspects of studio pedagogy: the 'apprenticeship' model, authoritative discourse in the studio, and the isolation of studio practices. I am currently investigating power relations in music teaching and learning, the nature of authority, and the potential of coaching.

In July 2018 I was Sydney Hub Co-organiser for the 15th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition (ICMPC) combined with the 10th triennial conference of the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music (ESCOM), at UNSW. The innovative conference format had live and virtual presentations streamed among hubs in Australia, Austria, Canada and Argentina.

My research publications include papers in the International Journal of Music Education, Arts & Humanities in Higher Education, Musicae Scientiae, British Journal of Music Education, Research Studies in Music EducationPsychology of Music, Music Education Research, Orfeu, and Scientia Pedagogica Experimentalis. Most of my papers are available through the institutional repository, here.

 


My Research Supervision


Supervision keywords


Areas of supervision

I am available to supervise research related to musical performance, including:

  • studio teaching and learning: 1-1 lesson behaviour, the apprenticeship model, power relations, and authoritative discourse
  • piano performance and pedagogy: creative practice and historical research
  • music performance anxiety and its management
  • engagement and jazz pedagogies

Recent completions include:

Riza Veloso (2021) Investigating music-evoked autobiographical memories (MEAMs) by using non-researcher-selected music: across the general population and in people with dementia. [2nd supervisor; 1st supervisor, Professor Emery Schubert]

Halina Leung (2019) Pierre Sancan: pianist, composer and pedagogue. [1st supervisor]

Danny Quan Zhou (2018) Evaluating individual differences in musical performance style: an empirical study of tempo and timing variation in contemporary recorded performances of the solo piano music of Chopin and Liszt. [2nd supervisor; 1st supervisor, Professor Dorottya Fabian] 


Currently supervising

Theo Bonny (in progress) Jazz pedagogy in raising secondary student classroom engagement. (Joint 1st supervisor, with Dr Sandy Evans]

Isabella Mazzarolo (Scientia scholar; in progress) Music performance anxiety. [Joint 1st supervisor, with Professor Emery Schubert]

 


My Teaching

The Music pedagogy stream in the Bachelor of Music programme includes Music studio teaching, Becoming a performer, and Educating the musical novice. I also coach Chamber music ensembles, within Performance lab courses.

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Location

110, Robert Webster Building

Contact

+61 2 9385 7675
+61 2 9385 6812