Research Profile
I am a musicologist and media composer based at the University of Leeds, where I hold the positions of Teaching Fellow in Film Music in the School of Music and Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Arts and Humanities Research Institute.
My research and teaching explores music in the media industries, using interdisciplinary methods to analyse the practices of production and synchronisation that shape audiovisual cultures. My PhD thesis (awarded December 2022 with Recommendation of Research Excellence) examined the use of library music (also known as ‘stock’ or ‘production’ music) in the contemporary British TV industry. My research publications include peer-reviewed journal articles in Music and the Moving Image, Critical Studies in Television, and the European Journal of American Culture, and book chapters for several edited volumes (Palgrave Macmillan, Bloomsbury, Routledge). My article “Soundtracking the City Break: Library Music in Travel Television” won the 2023 BAFTSS Publication Award for Best Essay by a Doctoral Student. Current projects include invited chapters for the Oxford Handbook of Music and Television and the Palgrave Handbook of Music and Sound in Peak TV. I am currently co-editing two projects: a volume on contemporary screen-music and -sound production (under contract with Routledge), and a special issue of the journal Music, Sound, and the Moving Image on library music in digital media.
I am the founder of the British Audio-Visual Research Network’s Virtual Colloquia, an AHRC-funded series of academic lectures and industry interviews which began in January 2021. To date, these events have included over forty presentations from academics based across four continents, in addition to interviews with BAFTA award-winning and Emmy award-nominated composers and sound designers. Last year, I also co-organised the study day, “Library Music in Audiovisual Media”, supported by the RMA and the University of Leeds. The event featured over 100 delegates based across Europe, Asia, and North and South America.
I am active within the TV industry as a media composer; I draw upon my professional practice to inform my research and teaching. My music has recently featured in the Emmy Award-winning series United Shades of America (CNN), the Grierson Award-nominated documentary Subnormal: A British Scandal (BBC One) and an international advertising campaign for internet brand Honey. My work is regularly heard on national primetime TV and recent series include Panorama (BBC One), Strictly Come Dancing (BBC One), MasterChef (BBC One), and Dispatches (Channel 4). I am a composer-member of BAFTA as part of their Connect scheme.
I hold a First Class degree in Music from the University of Oxford, a Masters in Composition with Distinction from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and a PhD in Music from the University of Leeds (fully funded by the AHRC via the White Rose College of the Arts and Humanities). I have also studied TV Scoring through New York University with composers including Sean Callery (24, Homeland) and Nathan Barr (True Blood, The Americans). I am an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA) and hold a PGCE in Music Education from the University of Buckingham.