Michelle Phillips
Wolfson College
Michelle is currently undertaking PhD study in the Centre for Music and Science, under the supervision of Dr. Ian Cross, funded by a Domestic Research Studentship (awarded by the University of Cambridge).
Her research interests include the golden section, music and number, perception of large-scale musical form, prospective and retrospective experience of time (duration) during music listening, and music and dementia. See below for details of papers, posters and conferences.
Michelle is part of the organising committee for the 3rd International Conference of Students of Systematic Musicology (SysMus10), held from 13th – 15th September at the Centre for Music and Science, University of Cambridge. From 2009-10 she convened the Intermedia Research Group, part of the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Cambridge, and in December 2009 Michelle was elected to serve two years as a student representative on the committee of the Society for Music Analysis (SMA). She also facilitates on the Enterprisers courses run by the Judge Business School’s Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning at the University of Cambridge.
Michelle supervises various undergraduate modules at the University of Cambridge, and from September 2010 is a part time tutor at the Royal Northern College of Music. During 2010 Michelle acted as an expert consultant to the Science Museum (London) for the ‘Who Am I?’ exhibition, and between January and February 2011 she will conduct research at the Science Museum as part of the ‘Science Live’ programme.
Michelle also enjoys working on music outreach education projects, and wrote and ran a show about music and maths for 420 primary school children entitled ‘Good Vibrations’, which was shown as part of the Science Festival at the University of Cambridge, on Tuesday 16th March 2010.
Prior to beginning her postgraduate study at the University of Cambridge, Michelle completed a BA(Hons) degree in Music and German (first class joint honours awarded), followed by an MA(by research) in German (funded by AHRB, now AHRC), studying the influence of music and music culture on contemporary Austrian fiction (distinction awarded).
Michelle plays the tenor and baritone saxophone in the Quadrangle saxophone quartet, and the Equinox saxophone ensemble, with which she performs regularly. She is a chartered accountant, and served for three years as a trustee for the charity Ladder to the Moon, which brings interactive theatre and music to older people and dementia patients in care homes in the London area.
Papers given
‘Problems in Proportion – why conceptual mathematical structuring of large-scale musical form lacks a perceptual counterpart’, Summer Workshop on Music, Pattern and Mathematics, 9th – 11th August 2010, Queen’s University International Study Centre at Herstmonceux Castle in East Sussex, England (full student scholarship awarded)
‘Musings on Maths and Music – The Complex Patterns We Simply Don’t Hear’, 2010 Cambridge Interdisciplinary Graduate Conference, 28th – 29th June 2010, University of Cambridge
‘The Golden Section – Seen But Not Heard?’, Music and Numbers Conference 2010, 14th – 15th May 2010, Canterbury Christ Church University
‘The Golden Section – Seen But Not Heard?’, Graduate Forum, 13th May 2010, University of Cambridge
‘Music’s Golden Section – An Empirical Approach’, 2nd International Conference of Students of Systematic Musicology (SysMus09), 18th – 20th November 2009, IPEM, University of Ghent
‘The Danger of Performance, a 21st Century Golden Sectionism’, SMA annual Theory and Analysis Graduate Students (TAGS) conference, 1st – 2nd May 2009, University of Durham
Poster presentations
‘The Musical Time Warp – Psychological Time and Elapsed Duration During Music Listening’, International Conference of Music Perception and Cognition 2010 (ICMPC,) , 23rd – 27th August 2010, The University of Washington School of Music (Seattle)
‘Expecting a Call? Psychological Time and Elapsed Duration during Music Listening – A Ringtone Study’, CIM-SEMPRE Study Day for postgraduate students (part of the CIM10 Nature vs. Culture Conference on Interdisciplinary Musicology, 22nd July 2010, University of Sheffield
Conferences attended (non-presenting)
CIM10 Nature vs. Culture, Conference on Interdisciplinary Musicology (23rd-24th July 2010, University of Sheffield
Music of Language, Language of Music: Development, Meaning and Literacy, (seminar run by the Language & Communication Research Group), 20th July, Middlesex University
7th Triennial Conference of European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music (ESCOM), 12th – 16th August 2009, University of Jyväskylä,
SMA Music Analysis Summer School, 13 – 15th July 2009, University of Durham
Fourth International J S Bach Dialogue Meeting of Bach Network UK, 3rd – 4th January 2009, University of Oxford
Society for Education, Music and Psychology Research (SEMPRE) student conference, 18th October 2008, University of Cambridge
Conference reviewing and chairing
Systematic Musicology conference 2010 (an international postgraduate conference), 13 – 15th September 2010, Faculty of Music, University of Cambridge
SMA annual Theory and Analysis Graduate Students (TAGS) conference, 30th April – 1st May 2010, University of Bangor